2 Abstract The synergy cultural heritage has been a tradition that is developed during the last decades. Once realized its importance, most European countries made cultural heritage a public good. Different cultural practices have been used by countries to market their nation or their cities. This research will focus on one specific part of the appreciation of cultural heritage, the UNESCO World Heritage status. If a site is included on the World Heritage List it can be used to attract investors and investments but also to improve the image of the city. There are well known sites who succeeded significantly in using this status for their own benefits Machu Picchu and the Acropolis and others are still struggling with the exploitation of such a cultural brand. Within this framework, this research tried to carry out a comprehensive study to investigate to what extend the UNESCO World Heritage status of the capital city of Curacao Willemstad had any affects on the tourism on Curacao. Mixed methods were used to investigate the awareness among tourists, and different categories of involved stakeholders were interviewed. The goal was to see how the tourists and different stakeholders perceive the World Heritage City Willemstad. It was concluded that the knowledge among the tourists about the World Heritage status is very low, and when they do know they are not triggered to explore this special feature of the city so far the status did not generate extra (economic) benefits for the island. On the other hand, the involved stakeholders are all aware of the uniqueness of the city but fail to exploit it. Some limitations were pointed out and recommendations for future research were made. Key words: UNESCO, heritage, World Heritage, tourism, economic effect, Curacao i

3 Acknowledgement My love for the Dutch Caribbean started in May When I finished my Bachelor in Cultural Studies at the University of Amsterdam, I wanted to spend my time somewhere else in the world before starting my Master Cultural Economics and Entrepreneurship at the Erasmus University. My dad always talked about the Dutch Caribbean with a lot of passion after a work related visit. Nice people and beautiful surroundings that just breathe culture. That is where it all started; I packed my bags and left the Netherlands to spend three months working for the Government of Aruba at the department of Culture and Economy. This was so inspiring that I had to write my Master thesis on a topic related to the Dutch Caribbean. The quest for an interesting thesis topic began and after a lot of research I found Curacao the most interesting island for my thesis research because this island has a UNESCO World Heritage City Willemstad. Conducting such a research is neither an effortless nor an individual task. Therefore, I would like to dedicate this thesis to the many individuals and organizations that provided assistance and support to complete this journey successfully. First of all, I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisor Prof. Dr. M. Vecco, who deserves a special thanks for all her professional support and encouragement, her intellectual guidance and all the time she spend on reviewing the drafts. Her commitment to supporting this research allowed me to spend an amazing three months on the beautiful island of Curacao. She set high standards but allowed me to explore my own topic independently and creatively. Secondly, I would like to thank all the people who contributed to the finalization of this research. Special thanks goes to Ron van der Veer, Koosje Spitz, Dre van Marrewijk, George Schmit, Faisol Ayoubi, Caroline Gonzalez-Manuel, Dennis Klaus, Herman George, Carlos Weeber, Marcel van der Plank, Zulaika Mook, and Iris Freericks for devoting there precious time. I also would like to thank the many tourists that I have spoken. Last but not least, I would like to thank my boyfriend, Martijn Kooiman, for supporting me to conduct this research abroad. And I would like to thank my parents, my dad Pieter Siebinga and my mom Bea van den Heiligenberg, for there endless support in my academic endeavours. ii

4 Table of Contents Introduction Research Background Problem Statement Research Objectives and Research Questions Research Location Impact Research Methods Structure...8 World Heritage Introduction Background The Aim of the World Heritage Convention Selection Criteria Nomination Process Pros and Cons of the World Heritage List Global Strategy Support...22 Heritage Tourism Introduction Background World Heritage Tourism World Heritage as Tourists Attraction General Visitation to World Heritage Sites International versus Domestic Visitors Reasons for Visiting World Heritage Managing Tourists Marketing Heritage...31 Curacao Introduction History Description of Willemstad The Development of the Historic Districts...38

7 1. Introduction The establishment of a World Heritage Convention and its World Heritage List can be seen as a logical progression of events. The inheritance of objects and properties take place at different levels of scale. Inherited objects in the past could differ from houses or tools, and even the land could be passed on to the next generation. From the 18th century, heritage has been used to underline their historical roots usually at a national level. The attention to the past has been further, and internationally, increased by the rise of tourism. Heritage became a useful tool to show a countries long-lasting identity, and to justify its existence. Curacao makes an interesting case when looking at the relation between World Heritage and Tourism. First of all, because Curacao is a Caribbean island that is depending on tourism. Furthermore, Curacao is one of the few Caribbean destinations that have a UNESCO World Heritage status. This is what makes Curacao a good case for researching the economic effects of the UNESCO status on the Curacao tourism. This chapter will give an overview of the research background, the problem statement, the objectives and the research questions, the location, methods used, and the structure of the thesis will be presented Research Background The capital city of Curacao Willemstad can be seen as a narrator of stories. The old buildings, alleys and high story buildings, and mansion along the coast line. All these different buildings, from different moments in time represent the colorful history Curacao has known. The historical districts Punda, Otrobanda, Scharloo, and Pietermaai serve as showcases of city development during a period of 500 years and it also shows the collective memories in a contemporary society. In the 1950s many historical districts suffered of substantial decline, Willemstad was one of them. To revitalize the historical districts, heritage tourism has been frequently promoted to transform the site for contemporary use (Ashworth and Tunbridge, 2000). In the 1990s a group of people saw the potential of Willemstad to become a UNESCO World Heritage City, and they began the quest to inscribe their city on the World Heritage List. In 1997 the city got the status of UNESCO World Heritage City, which could be used even more to promote tourism on the island of Curacao. Heritage tourism has always been an emerging phenomenon and many researchers have noticed its relevance. Cultural tourist behaviour is a topic that has been researched the most in western literature (Poria et al, 2004; Wiatt, 2000; Timothy, 1997), but also conservation and planning of the historical site (Russo and Van der Borg, 2002; Osbasli, 2000; Larkham, 1996; Tiesdell, 1996), managing heritage tourism (Bhandari, 2008; Fyall and Garrod, 1998; Light, 1994), the issues of authenticity (Apsotolakis, 2003; Shackley, 1994) and the impact of cultural heritage have been studied deeply (Nasser, 2003; Van der Borg et al, 1999). No evidence in the literature on tourist development

8 shows that the tourism development in the historical districts of Willemstad, and with that the effects of the UNESCO status on Curacao tourism, have been studied. The only studies on the island are conducted by the Curacao Tourist Board (CTB) behaviour and general tourism impact studies. Since the 1960s, tourism studies became an important topic in academic research. The early studies mainly focussed only on the positive economic impacts. These impact studies leave out the ethical and social grounds and therefore can be seen as one sided and biased (Waitt, 2003). Since the 1970s studies with topics like social, cultural, and environmental impact became more and more relevant. One thing needs to be kept in mind when researching the effects of the UNESCO status on tourism in a historical site is that tourism never comes without costs. Besides that, the impact of tourism on a historical site is greater than when looking at a modern city. When researching tourism in a historical city it is important to understand the economic, social, cultural, and environmental consequences in order to manage the site in the best way possible. The amount of tourism impact studies is still growing, even though the majority has been researching the rural population (Perdue et al, 1990; Gursoy et al, 2002; McGehee and Andereck, 2004; Leep, 2007). Within these studies the cultural destination with its historical districts is often ignored. Thus, the existing researches could provide a good opportunity to understand both the impact and development of tourism in heritage cities; this can assist the government and other involved organizations and stakeholders to maximize the benefits from tourism without causing damage to the heritage site Problem Statement Since the accessibility of airplane tickets, a door to the other side of the world has been opened. The Caribbean has become a popular destination because of its climate. General tourism in this area grows every day but heritage tourism is still under developed. Tourism has widely been used as a tool to reinforce the image of a city, and to support the economic growth and urban regeneration. Curacao has known a colorful history since the Dutch set foot on the island in This rich history creates a lot of cultural, historical, but also natural attractors. The historical district of Willemstad is one of the unique selling points of the island. One of the major users of the city therefore are the tourists. The commercialization and commodification of the heritage site are often market driven tourists want to experience the past. When tourism grows, usually a historic city will reconstruct their historical district to offer tourists an authentic historical and cultural environment. Therefore, tourism can change the city by commercialization and commodification. Policy makers usually ignore the costs and are only focussed on the economic returns. Usually the problem of 'Disneyfication' occurs the difference between truly authentic buildings and the ones made 'authentic' disappears. Most of the tourism development projects are initiated by the Curacao Tourist Board or by the

9 government. Besides these two stakeholders, the private sector such as developers and investors is a major stakeholder as well. It is of great importance that all of the stakeholders work together to create the best sustainable tourism plan. But either the lack of political power or financial assets will slow this process down. Moreover, all the stakeholders operate on their own without collaboration between them. There needs to be more research regarding the effects of the UNESCO status on tourism, economic impact of tourism on cultural heritage and eventually if cultural heritage can become one of the pillars to stimulate sustainable tourism. Tourism can be an effective tool to create economic development, rehabilitation and it can improve the quality of life of the local community. These goals are achieved when tourism is handled sustainably with the culture, nature, and environment as the key players Research Objectives and Research Questions This research will investigate the effects of the UNESCO status on Curacao tourism and if this created any economic benefits for the island. It is expected that through the study of tourism, and the cultural heritage development on Curacao, some general recommendations for further research could be concluded to achieve sustainable development and maybe provide references to other Caribbean islands that can use their cultural heritage as a unique selling point. To achieve this goal one main research question has been formulated: To what extend did the UNESCO status affect the tourism on Curacao? The main research question was translated into five specific questions listed below: How did the World Heritage List develop over time? How did heritage tourism develop over time, and what is the (economic) effect of (heritage) tourism? What did Curacao do when the island received the UNESCO World Heritage status? What are the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of the UNESCO World Heritage status on Curacao? What are the recommendations for further research on sustainable tourism development on Curacao? 1.4. Research Location This research was conducted in the UNESCO World Heritage city Willemstad. Willemstad is the capital city of Curacao an island that is located in the Caribbean. Curacao is part of the Dutch Caribbean which makes it part of the Kingdom of the Netherland. The Kingdom of the Netherlands,

10 also known as the Netherlands, is a sovereign state and constitutional monarchy with territories in Western Europe and the Caribbean. This will be further explained in Chapter 4. The Kingdom of the Netherlands has national monuments, municipal monuments, 355 protected nature areas, and nine World Heritage sites (Commissie Herziening Voorlopige Lijst Werelderfgoed, 2010). The Dutch Kingdom ratified the World Heritage Convention in 1992, twenty years after the establishment of the convention. The Netherlands is one out of 186 State Parties that signed this convention, this makes it UNESCO s most successful convention. The 186 State Parties obliged each other to protect and preserve their heritage for the next generation. All the State Parties acknowledge the protection of the World Heritage as an obligation to the international community. The ratification of the convention creates the opportunity to nominate heritage with outstanding universal value to be inscribed to the World Heritage List. But the ratification made the Netherlands responsible for all the World Heritage situated within their boundaries. Meanwhile, after nomination by the Dutch government, nine Dutch heritage sites are inscribed to the UNESCO World Heritage List (table 1.1.). Table 1.1. Dutch Heritage Sites Inscribed to the UNESCO World Heritage List. Source: UNESCO World Heritage Centre, 2013e. Thus Willemstad is one out of the nine World Heritage Sites of the Netherlands. With the canals of Amsterdam Willemstad is one out of the two World Heritage Cities of the Netherlands. Willemstad makes a very interesting case because the city is the capital of Curacao, Curacao is an island in the Caribbean, but the island is still part of the Dutch Kingdom. The heritage on the island has so many colorful layers but sometimes it is still looked at in a very black and white context policies are reviewed in a very black and white way but also the separation of the colorful community into black and white people. Because of this history it is even more important to create awareness among the local community and the international tourists in order to get everybody in the community involved with their shared heritage and create the opportunity for sustainable tourism and thus more sustainable economic benefit.

11 1.5. Impact and Relevance Tourism generates one of the biggest economic impulses for the Dutch Caribbean. On Curacao one can notice the interest in tourism development since the CTB has conducted several surveys into the visitors of the island. However, it remains at this level. There has been no or not published yet research into the development of the product Willemstad as a UNESCO World Heritage City. This research will try to fill this gap in the existing literature. I believe there is a strong need to explore the effects of the UNESCO status on the Curacao tourism or the future effects and impact. To provide lessons and experiences for future planning, management, conservation and development of heritage tourism. When the city will implement this into its daily routines of managing the city, the social impact could be great. First of all, the community should be made aware of the unique selling point of the city. Secondly, how can the local community experience the most direct economic effects from the UNESCO status emphasise the exploitation of this unique selling point Research Methods The overall objective of this research is to investigate the effects of the UNESCO status on the island of Curacao particularly looking at the (economic) effects on tourism development on this site. A case study is an empirical inquiry that could be used to investigate contemporary phenomenon within the real-life context, especially when the boundaries between phenomenon and context are not clearly evident (Yin, 2003). The result of a case study approach relies on multiple sources of evidence. To generate validate research findings, it is not enough to use either qualitative or quantitative research methods (Neuman, 1997). For this research therefore, a mixed method research approach was used a single study that combines both qualitative and quantitative research methods, including in-depth interviews, surveys, and observations. A detailed methodology is presented in Chapter Structure This research is organized into eight chapters. Chapter 2 will define World Heritage in general. How did this concept evolve over the years, what is the aim of the World Heritage Convention, the selection criteria, the nomination process, and the pros and cons of the World Heritage List. Chapter 3 will present the concept of heritage tourism and how this concept developed over time, how World Heritage can function as a tourist attraction, the visitation of heritage sites, and how to manage tourists on a heritage location will be the main focus of this chapter. Chapter 4 will give a detailed description of the site Willemstad with the development of its four historical districts Punda, Otroband, Scharloo, and Pietermaai. While Chapter 5 will present an overview of the economy on Curacao, specialized in the economy of tourism. Attention has been paid to; what are the visitor trends, what are the main attractors

12 on the island, the tourists' expenditure, and the profile of the tourist that is visiting Curacao. Chapter 6 will present and describe the main findings of this research and Chapter 7 will summarize the findings on the effects of the UNESCO status on Curacao tourism. Chapter 8 will provide the limitations of this research as well as some recommendations for further research.

13 2. World Heritage 2.1. Introduction Heritage always refers to something that is inherited from the past. This could be many things, and the word has several different meanings. For this Master thesis I will limit the definition to cultural and natural heritage. Cultural heritage is the legacy of the tangible artefacts and the intangible attributes of a specific group of people, a society, or even a country. This is the man-made heritage. Natural heritage on the other hand is not man-made; this is the inheritance of the flora and fauna, landscape and landforms, geology, and other natural recourses (Aa, van der, 2005). Heritage is registered in all different kinds of lists or registers, global, national, and even regional. These lists are inventories of cultural properties, natural and man-made, tangible and intangible, movable and immovable, that are of sufficient heritage value to be separately identified and recorded. Most registers have the primary focus on the registered sites rather than the registers themselves. Because this research is looking at the effects of the UNESCO status on Curacao tourism, it will only look at the global register, the UNESCO World Heritage List. This chapter will present an overview of the history, the aims, the selection criteria, the nomination process, the global strategy, and the support of UNESCO and the World Heritage List Background UNESCO - United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization - was established in 1945 after World War II. The goal is to create opportunities for conversation between different people, cultures, and communities based upon respect and commonly shared values (UNESCO, 2012). The organization is connected to the United Nations (UN), but the UN is not accountable for UNESCO. Also, when a nation is a UN member does not automatically mean that that nation is a member of UNESCO. UNESCO wants to create a dialogue that evokes a global vision in order to foster a sustainable development in the range of education, science, culture, and communication (UNESCO World Heritage Centre, 2013a). At the moment UNESCO has 195 State Parties, of which Palestine was the most recent. This had great consequences since the United States does not want to pay his contribution to UNESCO anymore, they were the biggest cash flow (UNESCO, 2012). In 1972 UNESCO established the World Heritage Convention and formulated a World Heritage List, this can be regarded as a logical progression of events. The inheritance of objects and property takes place at different levels of scale. For example object inheritance in the past, houses or tools to cultivate the land or a whole community could pass on their land to the next generation. The local or family scale can be seen as the instances of the continuity of heritage. Since the Enlightenment in the 18th century, heritage has been used to underline the historical roots, this is the general movement had

14 its climax in the 19th century. The interest in the past has been further developed by the rise of tourism and the appeal of the ideas behind the Bildungsreise or Grand Tour (Tunbridge and Ashworth, 1996). Heritage was a useful tool to show the contiguous and long-lasting identity of a country, and by this it justified its existence. But besides the objects, the landscape became a part of a country's identity, it became a compelling symbol of national identity (Lowenthal, 1993). Heritage sites are preserved to pass on cultural and natural sites in a reasonable state to the next generation. In 1972, UNESCO introduced The Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage. The accompanying World Heritage List includes natural, cultural, and mixed sites, whereby the last mentioned category includes sites with both natural and cultural features. The aim of the convention is to preserve the most important heritage sites around the globe for all humanity. A UNESCO World Heritage site is a site of special cultural or physical significance. The list is maintained by the international World Heritage Program, administered by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, composed of 21 State Parties (countries that signed and ratified the World Heritage Convention), which are elected by their General Assembly. UNESCO World Heritage catalogues and conserves sites of outstanding cultural or natural importance to the common heritage of humanity. Listed heritage sited obtain funds from the World Heritage Fund, under certain conditions. The heritage program was founded with the Convention Concerning the Protection of World Cultural and Natural Heritage, which was adopted by the General Conference of UNESCO on 16 November Since then, 189 State Parties have ratified the convention (UNESCO World Heritage Centre, 2013b.). As of 2012, 962 sites are listed: 745 cultural, 188 natural, and 29 mixed properties, in 157 different countries (table 2.1.). Table 2.1. Different World Heritage Sites in Different Countries Source: UNESCO World Heritage Centre, 2013b. Italy is the home of the greatest number of World Heritage sites with 47 sites, followed by Spain (44), and China (43) (figure 2.1.).

15 Figure 2.1. Territorial Division Countries with 10 sites or more Source: UNESCO World Heritage Centre, 2013b. UNESCO references each World Heritage site with an identification number. But since new inscriptions often include previous site, they are now listed as part of a larger description. As a result, the identification numbers exceed 1200 even though there are fewer actual sites on the list. While the World Heritage site remains part of the legal territory of a specific country wherein the site is located, UNESCO considers it in the interest of the international community to preserve each site. Table 2.2. Growth Numbers per Year c = cultural sites, n = natural sites, m = mixed sites Source: UNESCO World Heritage Centre, 2013g.

16 Figure 2.2. Growth in World Heritage Sites per Year Source: UNESCO World Heritage Centre 2013g. The historical underpinnings of the World Heritage Convention were laid about forty years before the actual establishment in The basis for cultural World Heritage was created in 1931 with a conference organized by the League of Nations in Athens. The lobby for natural World Heritage sites started a bit later, in 1948 with the establishment of the International Union for the Protection of Nature (IUPN) (Pressouyre, 1993). After World War II the United Nations (UN) continued the work of the League of Nations. One of the UN s sub organizations, UNESCO, had to contribute to peace and security by promoting collaboration among nations (UNESCO World Heritage Centre, 2013a). From this point on UNESCO became an important factor in saving heritages sites around the world. They took measures against flooding in the 1960s to save Venice (Italy) and Abu Simbel (Egypt). After these incidental projects UNESCO took some renovation projects at the Borobudur (Indonesia) and Mohenjo-Daro (Pakistan) (Turtinen, 2000). UNESCO was engaged in creating an international convention for cultural heritage sites, to broaden its activities, to include more countries, and to structure its activities. At the same time, the successor of the Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), worked toward introducing a global treaty for natural sites. These two international movements led to one convention for both heritage types (Batisse, 1992). The Nixon government expressed its wish in 1965 to create a World Heritage Trust in order to preserve the most important cultural and natural sites in the world. President Nixon considered the anniversary of the Yellowstone National Park as a opportune moment to introduce a World Heritage Convention in which all countries

17 would agree to the principle that there are certain areas of such unique worldwide value that they should be treated as part of the heritage of all mankind (Train, 1995). The World Heritage Trust includes both cultural and natural heritage sites, which analogous to the structure of the federal American National Park Service (NPS) (Aa, van der, 2005). The aim of the convention remained unchanged since the Americans formulated their ideas. Until today, the World Heritage Convention for cultural and natural heritage sites still envisions that the preservation of this common heritage concerns us all (UNESCO World Heritage Centre, 2013c). In the Spanish translation of the convention it is even more obvious that the sites are a concern for all citizens of the world, Patimonio de la humanidad heritage of humanity. On the one hand, even though the World Heritage Convention exists for more than thirty years, there is still a fair amount of criticism. Lowenthal (1998) underlined that heritage is a private good and not a public resource. Heritage is cherished as private property and ownership gives it essential worth. Tunbridge and Ashworth stressed that heritage is ultimately a personal affair, various people and individuals have different reasons to preserve a specific heritage site (Tunbridge and Ashworth, 1996). Besides these critiques, there are many other objectives regarding the fact that common heritage does not exist, all heritage is someone s heritage and therefore logically not someone else s (Tunbridge and Ashworth, 1996). But on the other hand there are two strong arguments why we should create and sustain a World Heritage List. First, the convention is formulated in such a way that national heritage and World Heritage can co-exist, as the international community can support the heritage sites. The World Heritage Convention was designed to complement, but not to compete with national heritage conservation programs (Bennet, 1977). Each country will stay the primary actor over the designated heritage site that are located within its borders and can decide how to manage and maintain the site. Other countries will only help when the heritage site is in peril. This will happen more likely since the world is becoming a global village. Countries see it as their moral responsibility to assist in preserving foreign sites. Unlike a century ago, we now see the world as common legacy and this legacy requires common care (Lowenthal, 1993). The countries that share history are likely to work together to manage and preserve their common heritage. For example, the Netherlands and Sri Lanka share dual guardianship for some heritage sites on the island of Sri Lanka, such as the old town of Galle which is also included on the World Heritage List (Attema and Keesom, 1997). The common care for World Heritage makes the site independent from their location, and therefore World Heritage sites can be protected in rich and in poor countries. This is important as not every country can preserve their heritage sites to the same standards (Fitch, 1992). Heritage is no less important for poor people than for the rich (Thompson, 2000). But besides the non competitiveness of the convention the second argument is just as relevant. Most heritage is in essence not national heritage. Most countries consider heritage

18 sites within their borders as their own while they are not always the legitimate owner. Some of the heritage sites originate from a period in time before the country wherein the site is located was created. For example, heritage related to a person, like Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, are not national possessions. They are claimed as national property while it has a European or even global character (Aa, van der, 2005). The case of universal property legitimates the protection of cultural and national heritage sites by all humanity. And besides that, there are still some places in the world that do not belong to a specific country, like Antarctica. Since there are a lot of spaces where a lot of different people come to experience the same thing, World Heritage does exist. Different people from different countries all want to do one thing, protect the sites for future generations The Aim of the World Heritage Convention The World Heritage Convention aims to preserve the world s best heritage sites, sites that meet certain quality criteria. Other parties involved may, however, have other goals in mind for obtaining the World Heritage status, either for reasons of attracting tourists (Gratton and Richards, 1996; Richards, 1996; Kinnaird et al., 1994) or giving identity (Lash and Urry, 1994; Kaplan and Kaplan, 1989). When regions have lost their traditional source of income, heritage tourism can offer an alternative source of income. For example, the deindustrialization process has led to the creation of industrial heritage sites, this can give the local economy a boost when manufacturing jobs have been lost (Hewison, 1987). Or it can provide an extra source of income. Therefore, heritage sites which do not interest visitors may not become a heritage site at all (Larkham, 1996). Heritage can also give meaning to the space that is surrounding us, knowing the past can help us understanding the uncertain future. It is an important human need to understand the past (Relph, 1983) Selection Criteria Each individual ascribes different values to a heritage site and therefore can compose his or her own heritage list. We value them as individuals through our own scale of preferences and set of values. That is what makes it different to come up with a common set of values to compose a common World Heritage List. Determining the value of cultural heritage is a complex process, as there is a distinction between five different types of values. These five dimensions are: which values functional; whose values personal; where values scale; when values past, contemporary, or future; uniqueness values exceptional or general (Aa, van der, 2005).

19 There are a number of functional values under different headings with more or less the same meaning. Three types of values are distinguished by Dix (1990): emotional, cultural, and usage value. Emotional value deals with the identity, the spiritual, and the symbolic value of the site. The cultural value looks at the historical and archaeological value of the heritage site. And the usage value is all about the economic, social, and political values. Carver (1996) takes it a step further and distinguishes between economic, aesthetic, and associative values. The functional value can be broken down in to eight possible dimensions: identity, artistic, rarity, functional, social, economic, educational, and political (Feilden and Jokilehto, 1998). If one wants to reach a general agreement on the value of a cultural heritage site it is important to weigh the different functional values. The increase in the number of cultural assets that are considered to be cultural heritage within a contemporary society can be attributed to two main factors. First of all the administrative processes linked to preservation policies that rely on such cultural additions. Besides that, new single elements are added each day with the consideration of new categories and typologies in mind. The first of these processes is related to the supply arguments and the second to the demand driven arguments. A demand for the extension of typologies; the close association between heritage elements in an intergal approach and the context of heritage elements; the shift in selection criteria from objective criteria the traditional historic and artistic values to subjective criteria (Vecco, 2010). This is a difficult process, which value is more important than the other and how do you decide? When one decides which values are important to you does not mean that these values are also important for someone else. Different actors assign different values to a heritage site. A cultural value may be important to those who love heritage, but an investor might be more interested in the economic value. Similarly, a site can be valued as highly exceptional in ones culture while the other culture may see it as less important. Different people have different perceptions of the importance of cultural heritage sites. The site itself is more appreciated in the Far East than in the West but the West values the authenticity of the materials more than the Far East (Aa, van der, 2005). The always returning question is: how can one compose a World Heritage List while incorporating the values of different cultures? The valuation of a site is also depending on people s education or specialization. Someone who has a heritage background probably will assign more value to each heritage site than someone with a different background. So should a site be valued by an expert or by the general public? It is hard to say that it is one or the other. Experts usually do not agree as well, and the general public does not have the knowledge to be included in the deliberation of the experts. But the same thing will happen when you will let the public decide. Lists drawn up by experts and the general public are likely to differ. The question of who is able to select the past is a question about who is able to identify him- or herself with

20 the other at any given time and place (Friedman, 1994). So the most important thing is that the expert can identify himself with the general public in order to make the best decision concerning the World Heritage. The level of the heritage site is also important. The difficulty in this lies in deciding the applicable scale-level as this depends on the interpretation of history. The problem lays in overvaluation of one s own heritage sites. Van der Harten (1999) observes that the local population of the city of Willemstad (Curacao) highly value their historic city. This may be sufficient for a local or national designation, but does it substantiate the claim of universal recognition? But besides all the different valuation we have to take into account the outcome of these valuations vary over time. Sites that were regarded as valuable a decade ago might be seen as obsolete today. Likewise, today s heritage collection might not be seen as valuable when they made the specific sites. Their survival could be regarded as an accident of history. For example, the windmills at the Kinderdijk in the Netherlands were able to survive as they were used to house the millers after the opening of the new pumping station in Where other, even more impressive windmills, were demolished (Bakker, 1998). This is the process of conservation through the use and reallocation of a heritage site. During the years profiles of selecting World Heritage changed but the World Heritage Committee never removed a site from the list. There can also be a distinction between general and exceptional values. Should we only inscribe the most exceptional heritage or should the general heritage get a change as well? And how many sites of each genre should be inscribed? The World Heritage Committee has made a distinction between sites related to positive themes (for example nature parks and castles) and negative events (such as concentration camps) (Aa, van der, 2005). When a site wants to be inscribed on the World Heritage List it has to be of outstanding universal value. The way of determining this outstanding value has been discussed a lot over time by advisory bodies like the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). For cultural heritage the outstanding value is found in the history, art, or science (for monuments and groups of buildings) or in terms of history, aesthetics, ethnology, or anthropology (for areas). And for natural heritage the outstanding value is searched from an aesthetic or scientific perspective. ICOMOS is the advisory body for cultural heritage and advises on the basis of uniqueness and the way the site is managed. IUCN is the advisory body in the cases of natural heritage. In their advices they will use the classification system by professor Udvardy (Uvardy, 1975). Thus, the cultural process that comes from human creativity plays an important role in establishing the outstanding value of a cultural site, for natural sites the biogeographically diversity is important. But absolute values will never be found in the matter of determining the outstanding value of a site, it will remain a matter of taste (UNESCO World Heritage Centre, 2013a). The World Heritage List has been shaped to a warrant and highly selective list. But is this a good or a bad thing?

21 2.5. Nomination Process With all the different values in mind the nomination process can start. Only countries that have signed the World Heritage Convention, pledging to protect their cultural and natural heritage, can submit nomination proposals for properties on their territory to be considered for inclusion in UNESCO s World Heritage List (UNESCO World Heritage Centre, 2013c). The first step a country must take is to value their heritage sites and thus make an inventory of its important cultural and natural heritage sites located within their boundaries, which they consider to be heritage of outstanding universal value and therefore, suitable for inscription to the World Heritage List. This valuation forms a Tentative List, it provides an overview of properties that a State Party might submit for inscription in the next five to ten years. State Parties are encouraged to prepare their Tentative List in collaboration with a wide variety of stakeholders. For example, local and regional government, site managers, local communities, NGOs and other interested parties and partners. State Parties should submit their Tentative List at least one year prior to the submission of any nomination. The list may be updated at any time, but the State Parties are encouraged to re-examine and re-submit their lists at least every ten years. The importance of this step lies in the fact that the World Heritage Committee cannot consider a nomination when the site has not been included on the State Party s Tentative List. When preparing the Tentative List, the State Party can plan when to present a nomination file. The World Heritage Committee will assist the State Party in preparing this file where necessary. This document needs to be as exhaustive as possible, all the necessary documentation and maps have to be included. The nomination is submitted to the World Heritage Centre, they will check if it is complete. And once the nomination file is complete the World Heritage Centre will send it to the appropriate Advisory Bodies for evaluation. A nominated property is independently evaluated by two Advisory Bodies: the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) and the World Conservation Union (IUCN). They provide the World Heritage Committee with evaluations of each nominated cultural and natural heritage site. After these two Advisory Bodies there is one more Advisory Body that will take a look at the nomination, the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM). This is an intergovernmental organization which provides the Committee with expert advice on conservation of cultural sites, and they provide training activities as well. After the nomination and evaluation, it is up to the intergovernmental World Heritage Committee to make a final decision on the inscription of a heritage site. This happens once a year, they meet to decide which sites will be included on the World Heritage List. The Committee can also postpone its decision and request further information for the States Parties (UNESCO World Heritage Centre, 2013j). When the Tentative List is under evaluation by the committee, a set of criteria is taken in to account in order to determine which sites will be included and which will be excluded. To be included on the World Heritage List, sites must be of outstanding universal value and meet at least one out of ten

22 selection criteria (UNESCO World Heritage Centre, 2013i). The Operational Guidelines for Implementation of the World Heritage Convention is, besides the text of the Convention, the main working tool on World Heritage. All the criteria are explained in article 77 of this document. The Committee regularly revises the criteria, to reflect the evolution of the World Heritage concept itself. Until the end of 2004, World Heritage sites were selected on the basis of six cultural and four natural criteria. With the establishment of the Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention (UNESCO World Heritage Centre, 2013d) a set of 10 criteria was put down in detail. Nominated sites must meet at least one of the ten criteria, the criteria are applied in combination with three comprehensive aspects: uniqueness, historical authenticity, and integrity or intactness. Six criteria that refer to Cultural Sites: 1. to represent a masterpiece of human creative genius; 2. to exhibit an important interchange of human values, over a span of time or within a cultural area of the world, on developments in architecture or technology, monumental arts, townplanning or landscape design; 3. to bear a unique or at least exceptional testimony to a cultural tradition or to a civilization which is living or which has disappeared; 4. to be an outstanding example of a type of building, architectural or technological ensemble or landscape this illustrates (a) significant stage(s) in human history; 5. to be an outstanding example of a traditional human settlement, land-use, or sea-use which is representative of a culture (or cultures), or human interaction with the environment especially when it has become vulnerable under the impact of irreversible change; 6. to be directly or tangibly associated with events or living traditions, with ideas, or with beliefs, with artistic and literary works of outstanding universal significance the Committee considers that this criterion should preferably be used in conjunction with other criteria; The other four criteria concern Natural Sites: 7. to contain superlative natural phenomena or areas of exceptional natural beauty and aesthetic importance; 8. to be outstanding examples representing major stages of earth's history, including the record of life, significant on-going geological processes in the development of landforms, or significant geomorphic or physiographic features; 9. to be outstanding examples representing significant on-going ecological and biological processes in the evolution and development of terrestrial, fresh water, coastal and marine ecosystems and communities of plants and animals; 10. to contain the most important and significant natural habitats for in-situ conservation of

23 biological diversity, including those containing threatened species of outstanding universal value from the point of view of science or conservation (UNESCO World Heritage Centre, 2013i). Once a heritage site is inscribed on the World Heritage List it will be removed from the Tentative List of the State Party, this is in conformity with the Committee Decision (UNESCO World Heritage Centre, 2013d). At this moment 962 properties are part of the UNESCO World Heritage List. Besides these theoretical criteria's of outstanding universal value, UNESCO requires the site to have integrity and be authentic. If the site is completely intact, the integrity is high. This is used for both cultural and natural heritage. Authentic means original in this case, but this criterion is only used for cultural heritage. Depending on the site, the site has to be a truthful and credible representation of every aspect like shape, design, materials, function, location, and atmosphere all in relation to the characteristics of the specific site (UNESCO World Heritage Centre, 2013i) Pros and Cons of the World Heritage List Generally the World Heritage List is considered to be an excellent contribution to saving the world's common history in the form of cultural and natural sites worth preserving. It is of great importance to identify the conditions under which the World Heritage List is beneficial, and under which it is detrimental (Frey, 2010). First of all, the positive aspects of the World Heritage List. Two general aspects are important in this case, the UNESCO list generates direction of attention, and the specific protection will be provided. The list can be considered to be a collective international effort to protect our planet from destruction comparable to the efforts that are made to protect the global environment. A phenomenon as the World Heritage List will attract various actors like the general public, public decision-makers, potential donors, and for-profit firms. Usually the involvement in the process of getting the UNESCO status strengthens a country's relationship with the international heritage movement. On the other hand, inclusion on the list does not mean financial support from UNESCO (Frey, 2010). Besides these positive affects the list could also have negative aspects. Inclusion on the World Heritage List could lead to four undesired aspects: questionable selection of the sites that are on the World Heritage List; overextension with respect to the number and types of sites; substitution effects burdening non-listed cultural and natural sites; and destruction by excessive number of visits to the sites, in war or by terrorists seeking a well-publicized target. (Frey, 2010). One can state that the selection process of the World Heritage List is questionable because it is strongly influenced by the opinion of experts represented by the three advisory groups, ICOMOS, IUCN and ICCROM. They rely on their knowledge as art historians and conservators but not include the utility gained by a representative sample in the population. The general population often knows little or nothing about the

24 site in question (Frey, 2010). One could ask the question whether the World Heritage List is only for the 'happy few' and not for the general population. Besides the questionable selection, the list has continuously grown over time (table 2.2./figure 2.2.). On one hand, 962 sites are not that much considering all the culture spread out over the world. But on the other hand, it is already a large number considering the selection process every site has to go through. With this overextension of the World Heritage List the definition of heritages becomes broader and broader, shifts from cultural to natural to mixed sites have already taken place. There are also undesired substitution effects. Listed sites will draw the attention away from the not listed sites. For the tourist industry it could be important to be on the World Heritage List to be compatible with other listed countries. Another undesired substitute effect could be that the financial resources within a country will be distributed poorly because of the listed site. The listed site will get more financial support compared to other sites, sometimes even taking the money from the other site to invest in the listed site. The last negative aspect is the extra attention the site will get from inscription to the World Heritage List. Not all attention is good, a site can be damaged by all the extra visitors it is getting from one day to the other (Frey, 2010). It is important to look at all cases individually in order to see whether the World Heritage List is reaching its goal or if this is less the case. The list tends to be beneficial in certain cases, sites that are disregarded by national decision-makers, sites should not be commercially exploitable, and sites with inadequate national financial resources, political control and technical knowledge for conservation. But on the other hand, when a site is already popular the inscription could be beneficial as well (Frey, 2010) Global Strategy In 1994, the World Heritage Committee launched the Global Strategy with the ambition to create a balanced, credible, and representative World Heritage List. The aim of the strategy is to ensure that the list reflects the world s cultural and natural diversity of outstanding universal value. The strategy asks its State Parties that are already greatly represented on the list to be cautious with new submissions in order to create more opportunities for the underrepresented countries. After more than two decades after the adoption of the 1972 Convention, the World Heritage List lacked a balance in the type of listed properties and in the geographical areas of the world that were represented. Of the 410 properties in total, 304 were cultural sites and only 90 were natural, 16 were mixed sites. The majority is located in developed regions of the world, namely in Europe. With this new global strategy the World Heritage Committee wanted to broaden the definition of World Heritage in order to create a more complete spectrum of the shared culture and natural treasures of the world. But also to provide an operational methodology and a comprehensive framework for implementing the World Heritage Convention. It is crucial to the global strategy that there are ongoing efforts to encourage countries to become State

25 Parties to the convention. When becoming a State Party they are encouraged to prepare a Tentative List and nominations of properties from categories and regions that are currently not well represented on the World Heritage List (UNESCO World Heritage Centre, 2013h) Support Besides all the written criteria s that are important to get a heritage site on the World Heritage List it might be even more important to see if there is support from within the community. This support is one of the most important factors in the sustainable preservation of the heritage site, when there is a lack of support from the community it is likely to assume that the site won t survive. That is why UNESCO asks the local community to come up with a management plan for the site, this plan does not need to be developed before inscription to the list. The support is reflected in the conservation of the site. According to UNESCO the management plan should at least contain the following elements: The content of preservation; the way in which the site is sustainably protected by different instruments (World Heritage Convention, international conventions), national legislation and policies, statutes and contracts; relevant development surrounding the World Heritage; the organization (structure, vision, strategy, threats, protection, planning, communication, and information); sustainability of the surroundings and the cultural objects; personnel and financial situation. This management plan should be ready within ten years after inscription, some exactions are made when the condition of the site is not so good (UNESCO World Heritage Centre, 2012).

26 3. Heritage Tourism 3.1. Introduction The World Tourism Organization (WTO) defines tourists as people that travel to and stay in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business, and other purposes (UNWTO, 1995). Thus tourism is travel with recreational, leisure, or business purposes. Tourism has become a popular global leisure activity. In 2011, there were over 983 million international tourist arrivals worldwide, this represents a growth of 4,6% when compared to the 940 million tourists in 2010 (UNWTO, 2012). Besides the great pleasure people experience when being a tourist, tourism is important, and even vital in some cases, for many countries. This was already recognized in the 1980 in the Manila Declaration on World Tourism. It stated that tourism is an activity essential to the life of nations because of its direct effects on the social, cultural, educational, and economic sectors of national societies and on their international relations (Manila Declaration on World Tourism, 1980). Tourism can create opportunities for employment in the service sector of the economy that is associated with tourism. This includes transportation services, hospitality services, and entertainment venues (UNWTO, 2012). Curacao has all the features of a perfect holiday destination, white beaches, great weather, and good beer. But besides the obvious characteristics, Curacao also offers cultural heritage. That is why this Chapter will give an overview of the concept cultural heritage tourism, or just heritage tourism. By giving a definition of the concept, including a historic background, World Heritage as the topic of tourism, general visitation to World Heritage sites, international versus domestic visitors, the reasons for visiting, and how to manage these tourists. Heritage tourism is a branch of tourism that has the subject of cultural heritage as a point of interest when visiting a specific location. These tourists want to travel to places to experience the authenticity of the stories and the people of the past and the present. It is not a new phenomenon that culture could be an object of travel. This has been the case since the development of the Grand Tour in the 16th century and onwards. Cultural attractions play an important role in tourism, at all levels. From the global highlight as the Taj Mahal in India or the Pyramids in Egypt, to the local highlights that underpin a certain identity (Richards, 1996). This chapter will present the background of heritage tourism, the concept of World Heritage tourism, World Heritage as a tourist attraction, how the visitation is to World Heritage sites international and domestic visitors, the reasons why tourists visit World Heritage sites and how to market and manage World Heritage.

27 3.2. Background Three hundred years ago, wealthy graduated young Englishmen began to travel through France and Italy in search of art, culture, and the roots of Western civilization. With funds that had no limits, aristocratic connections and months, maybe years of leisure time, they did many things. Commissioned paintings, mingled with the upper crust of the European continent, and perfected their language skills (Matt, 2008). The main purpose of the Grand Tour laid in the exposure to both the cultural legacy of classical antiquity and the Renaissance, and being a socialite in the society of the European continent. Besides that it might have been the only opportunity to see a specific work of art or to hear a certain kind of music. The Grand Tour had more than superficial cultural importance, the ruling-class control in the 18th century was located primarily in a cultural hegemony, and only secondarily in an expression of economic or physical (military) power (Thompson, 1991). The Grand Tour was thus a traditional trip through Europe undertaken by recent graduated, upper-class, young Englishmen of means. The Tour flourished from the end of the 1660s until the rise of the large scale rail transits in the 1840s. The rise of the rail and steamship travelling made the journey less of a burden. The tradition of travelling was extended to include more of the middle class and Thomas Cook transformed the Grand Tour into the Cook s Tour. Thomas Cook made travelling more easily and accessibly for everybody. As shown above, cultural heritage has already contributed to the appeal of tourist destinations for a long time. However, in the recent years this topic has been rediscovered as a marketing tool to attract those tourists who cherish a special interest in cultural heritage. (Weiler & Hall, 1992). Cultural heritage tourism is one of the fastest growing segments within the tourism industry, there is a trend towards increased specialization among tourists. This trend is visible in the rise of tourists who seek history, adventure, culture, archaeology, and interaction with the local people (Hollinshead, 2008). Besides the growing interest, heritage tourism is important for various reasons. It could have positive social and economic impact, it establishes and reinforces identity, it helps to preserve the cultural heritage, with culture as an instrument it facilitates harmony and understanding among people, it supports culture, and it can help to renew tourism as a whole (Richards, 1996). But on the contrary, heritage tourism can also create tension, and sometimes even conflict, between the different stakeholders involved (Porter & Salazar, 2005). Heritage tourism has a number of objectives, within the context of sustainable development that should be taken into account. It is important that there is an accurate interpretation of resources that the conservation of cultural resources is taken into account, there should be an authentic visitor's experience, and there should be a stimulation to put the earned revenues back into the cultural resources. Besides the identification, protection, and management of the heritage, heritage tourism is also concerned in understanding the impact of tourism on communities and regions, providing resources for protection, achieving economic and social benefits, and marketing and promotion. Heritage tourism is thus more complicated than regular tourism.

28 3.3. World Heritage Tourism Heritage or cultural tourism can be defined as visits by persons from outside the host community motivated wholly or in part by interest in the historical, artistic, and scientific or lifestyle/heritage offerings of a community, region, group or institute (Silberberg, 1995). Historical and cultural attractions are key players in generating tourism, this has still spurred the growth of a large heritage industry. But the lack in research towards the character and behaviour of cultural heritage tourists and their social and economic impact on the destinations makes it hard to draw a single conclusion (Prentice, 1993). This research will provide a detailed analysis of the benefits gained from the visits of heritage tourists on the island Curacao. There is only one problem when looking at heritage tourism as a whole. Heritage tourism is too easily regarded as a homogenous industry, when in fact it covers diverse attractions which serve different kinds of tourism and leisure markets. It is important to look at heritage tourism case by case, researching their retailing role, their educational impact, and their sustainability. Researched showed that the demand of tourists is related to their decision making process, including their socioeconomic background. This process is influenced by the marketing and management of tourism of a specific site (Prentice, 1993). Data usually indicates a very common pattern among the cultural tourist. A cultural tourist usually: earns more money and spends more money while on vacation; spends more time in an area while on vacation; is more likely to stay at hotels or motels; is far more likely to shop; is more highly educated than the general public; includes more women than men women of course, represent a disproportionate share of shoppers and bus tour passengers; tends to be in older age categories. (Silberberg, 1995). But more factors play an important role: high level of education several studies show that a person with a higher education is more likely interested in culture; the increasing number of woman in powerful positions within the society since woman tend to be more interested in culture; there is less time for leisure but a greater emphasis on quality time experience (Silberberg, 1995). That heritage tourism is different from regular tourism should be clear now. The tension between tradition and modernity reveals a good reflection of the complex relationship between tourism and heritage. There are four challenging issues when linking heritage and tourism: marketing built heritage, interpretation, planning for heritage, and the interdependencies between the local community and the heritage tourists. Each issue requires a different approach, this indicates that heritage tourism raises more activities than just management and planning for developing countries. They could be a fundamental problem of development (Nuryanti, 1996). Much of today s heritage tourism relies on the re-creation of the cultural and ethnic traditions (Chhabra, et al., 2003). Because of its contribution to world peace travel broadens the mind a lot of international organizations support tourism (Cooper, et al., 1993). UNESCO is claimed to be such an organization, they think that world citizens can learn about other cultures while visiting World Heritage sites. This is one of the primary goals of

29 creating a World Heritage List, attract more visitors to different areas of the world to create a greater understanding, and share experiences among different kinds of people (Aa, van der, 2005) World Heritage as Tourists Attraction There is not one known heritage site in the world that does not receive visitors. Tourism and heritage are industries that collaborate, heritage turns locations into destinations (Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, 1998). The heritage products that can be market to tourists are institutions, lifestyle and heritage opportunities, and events. These different products can be linked as well. The better the cultural product, the greater the expenditure of the regions residents. It might be even more important that the heritage or cultural product has the ability to attract or increase the length of stay of long-haul tourists. But not every cultural product museum or heritage site is capable or has to be a significant tourist attraction. One can make a distinction between two cultural products, the ones who are willing to attract (more) tourists and the ones who are able to attract (more) tourists. The locations that are able to attract tourists should have: perceived quality of the product; awareness among inhabitants; customer service attitude; sustainability; extent to which product is perceived to be unique or special; convenience; community support and involvement; management commitment and capability (Silberberg, 1995). Key in exploiting your cultural product is the ability to export this product. Every Euro that comes from another country but is spent in yours is an extra Euro for the community. Therefore, to create more benefits from ones cultural product is to 'export' this product to other countries by marketing this product in the best way possible (Silberberg, 1995). A World Heritage site can become a tourist attraction. They receive fifteen to twenty percent of the total tourist market and you can state that there is a causal relationship between the number of tourist arrivals per country and the number of World Heritage sites (Musitelli, 2003). But what makes World Heritage a popular factor when planning a vacation? A World Heritage status allows site managers and tourist organizations to distinguish themselves from similar destinations. If you have something more to offer than a similar site makes your site more desirable. Prominence in any form is helpful because of the increasing competition (Ashworth & Voogd, 1990). It could function as a label for contemporary tourists that seek relatively high-standing sites (Aa, van der, 2005). You can say that the World Heritage status is a unique selling point to attract visitors (Bruns & Holden, 1992). Some countries even have special marketing strategies to promote their World Heritage sites. And in some countries you can see the number of visitors increase after inscription on the World Heritage List. A reason for heritage sites to apply for a World Heritage status could be the hope of attracting more visitors and evidently reap economic benefits (Nuryanti, 1996). When stakeholders regard heritage first as an economic resource, the danger could be that tourism is promoted even before conserving the site properly. The treat here is that tourists discover the site, invade it, exploit it, spoils it, and it finally

30 recedes (Anagnostopoulos, 1994). Therefore, tourism can be seen as one of the largest threats to World Heritage sites in general, because tourists can damage a site (Frey, 2010; Kuijper, 2003). The damage can be physical but also the intangible heritage can be damaged, a site can lose its soul or integrity (Boniface, 1995). When a site is designated to improve its preservation, inscription could lead to a counter effect when attracting more tourists then before. Especially when looking at the natural heritage, national parks are created to better protect their ecologic environment but when they get inscribed they automatically need to facilitate more tourists by drawing more public attention to them. The cultural product can be willing, ready, or able to attract tourists but not every person is interested in culture. There are different kinds of consumer motivation concerning cultural tourism. The smallest group are the tourists that are greatly interested and motivated by culture. These are the tourists that travel to a specific destination especially for the cultural entertainment. A less interested group is the group of tourists that are in part interested in culture. Tourists that travel to a destination for the culture but also for, for example friends and family. Besides those tourists there are also people who are motivated because culture is connected to another main motivation. The main motivation can be non-cultural while they will also plan cultural activities while they are in the city. There are also tourists that will accidentally attend a cultural activity. Besides these groups that will attend some kind of cultural activity there will always be a group that would not attend a cultural activity under any circumstances (Silberberg, 1995) General Visitation to World Heritage Sites Information on visitors' statistics at World Heritage sites is not always available. Usually it will not go further than the type of tourist; cruise ship passengers, Dutch nationals, European and American holiday makers and so on. Records of tourists visiting a specific site may either not be kept at all or could be unreliable. Curacao is also a case where specific data about the correlation between the visit and the World Heritage is not collected. When looking at the numbers of visitors to World Heritage sites in general, two conclusions can be drawn. First of all, World Heritage sites that are mostly decentralized will experience an increase in visitors after the inscription. Whereas most centrally located World Heritage sites usually receive many visitors before their listing. Secondly, getting inscribed to the World Heritage List has more impact on the number of international visitors than the domestic ones (Aa, van der, 2005). The research of Bart van der Aa (2005), shows that most of the World Heritage sites did not experience a dramatic change in visitors after inscription to the World Heritage List (table 3.1.). The fact that a World Heritage site has high visitor numbers and good quality facilities is usually not due to the fact it got inscribed on the World Heritage List. Most centrally located sites have already established their reputation before listing and the high number of visitors is not a consequence but is preceded by the World Heritage Listing. Because a site is already established the

31 impact on the number of visitors will be low. A decentralized heritage site can be less established because of its location. In this case, listing can lead to more visitors which leads to the site being more established. Heritage sites that are relatively not well know can become major visitor attractions because of the high-standing reputation of the other impressive sites that are inscribed to the World Heritage List. Table 3.1. Change in Visitor Numbers Centrally and Non-Centrally Located Source: Van der Aa, No major changes occurred but some small changes are visible in the visitor numbers of decentralized sites, they have increased. However, these sites were under represented in the research of Bart van der Aa (2005), he researched 63 centrally located sites and 23 decentralized sites. Hence the 11 sites that largely increased in visitor numbers at the decentralized sites represent 48% of the whole research group. The 11 sites that largely increased in visitor numbers at the centralized locations represent only 18%. But another conclusion of this research was that in some cases the number of visitors can increase enormously. The number of visitors in Tarraco, Spain, increased from in the late 90s to one million in 2003 (Aa, van der, 2005). Besides the distinction between centrally located and decentralized sites, Bart van der Aa (2005) also looked at the differences in visitors between cultural and natural heritage. He concluded that an increase in the number of visitors is seen more often at cultural than at natural sites (table 3.2.). The reason could be that cultural sites are often located in or near an urban area and natural sites are very likely located at rural areas that are harder to reach. Like Butler says: International tourists visit urban centres in greater numbers than they do rural areas (Butler, 1998). Table 3.2. Change in Visitor Numbers Cultural and Natural Sites Source: Aa, van der, 2005.

32 3.6. International versus Domestic Visitors Regular heritage mostly appeals to domestic visitors. But on the contrary, World Heritage sites may be more popular among the international visitors (Nuryanti, 1996). This is not a strange phenomenon considering the UNESCO criteria, a site should be of unique and outstanding universal value. Because of this it should be automatically more appealing to a wider audience. An inscription to the World Heritage List could lead to more international tourists. They can have a great deal of impact since they tend to stay longer then domestic visitors and are liable to spend more money (Aa, van der, 2005). Thus, when the site is centrally located and is inscribed on to the World Heritage List it can suspect more international visitors. This is not always a positive development, when the number of visitors keeps increasing it is likely that the number of actual inhabitants will decrease. Housing will get more expensive, local stores will disappear in order to create more space to entertain the tourists. When this occurs and nobody stops it, it is likely to assume that the site will lose it authenticity and it will just be an open air museum (Spitz, 2013). If this form of chance will happen the local authorities need to ask themselves why they wanted the site to be listed in the first place. This will be a trade-off between local stakeholders Reasons for Visiting World Heritage One thing that the research of Bart van der Aa (2005) made clear is that it is important that the heritage site is accessible in order to attract visitors. Another important thing is the inclusion into tours and tourist routes. These routes are created paths that tour operators will offer their company. Because the tour operator is the middle man in the decision making of the tourists they play an important role in the success of a cultural site, they determine which location to include in a route and which to leave out (Richards, 2000). Besides the role of intermediary they can create awareness as well, hence they usually mention the World Heritage status of a site. No research has been done on the impact of listing on tourist routes, but the assumption can be made that routes will not drastically change but they will be slightly adapted. With this in mind another assumption can be made, sites that recently got listed and are closed to a tourist route will likely get more visitors. Besides the accessibility of the site and inclusion to tourist routes, general promotion could be a factor that influences the number of visitors as well. The aim of promoting a World Heritage site is to attract more visitors. But sometimes de-promotion is desirable in order to enhance the preservation of the site for the future generation. This is usually the case with centrally located World Heritage sites that were already known before they got listed. But besides preservation, a site manager could abstain from promotion from a moral and religious perspective (Aa, van der, 2005). A good balance between tourism and the World Heritage is needed in order to be sustainable. There is one international organization that focuses on the promotion of tourism, the Organization of World Heritage Cities

33 (OWHC). In 1993 the OWHC was established to develop a co-operative relationship and solidarity between multiple World Heritage cities (Turtinen, 2000). Promotion could also go via media attention. Batisse (1992) stated that because of the increase in publicity given to World Heritage sites, tourism at these sites grew significantly. The media attention could add to the visibility of decentralized sites, the only problem here is that usually the media is more interested in the centralized sites. But both centralized as well as decentralized sites will experience an increase of attention after listing Managing Tourists Listing a site as World Heritage usually means getting to deal with more visitors on a regular basis. The mission of a heritage site is primarily one of caring for the property and maintaining it in the most original state possible, financial solvency and public access will only enter the decision making process as secondary considerations. A combination of conservation with financial and public access is necessary to manage a heritage site properly. The only problem usually is that heritage managers do not consider themselves to be in the tourism business (Croft, 1994). Heritage managers preserve themselves more as guardians than as providers of public access. The lack of attention to economic management needs to change since, in many countries, the access to traditional sources of public funding has been restricted by the government. The 'user pays principle' is not yet adopted by many heritage managers, but it is widely recognized as a potential vehicle for promoting sustainability in the context of other major forms of tourism (Garrod and Fyall, 2000). Besides the economically uninterested heritage managers, the absence of truly representative asset values tends to lead society to under invest in their conservation, resulting in their physical deterioration (Garrod and Fyall, 2000). A heritage site can be a successful attraction when: the attraction is inexpensive and visitor-friendly; it is physically and intellectually accessible; there is a balance between the visitor needs and the conservation imperative; the site maintains its authenticity and integrity; it delivers value for money (Garrod and Fyall, 2000). Besides these elements, eight other elements are important to create a successful heritage site: conservation, accessibility, education, relevance, recreation, financial, local community, and quality (Garrod and Fyall, 2000). The conservation is an important aspect of the heritage manager's role, he needs to safeguard the site in order to ensure the use of the heritage site by the present generation does not compromise the ability of future generations to use and benefit from the site. To be beneficial as a heritage site one should be accessible to the public but also to the local community. If people are prevented from experiencing a heritage asset, it can no longer be considered as part of their heritage. But high levels of accessibility on the other hand can lead to damage to the site. To achieve this accessibility education is important. In order to appreciate the heritage site, the local community and the visitors must be able to understand its nature and therefore its significance why it should be conserved. The site should also

34 be relevant to a wide audience a site should not be preserved for a small minority of heritage enthusiasts. The ideal situation should be that all visitors, including the local population, will appreciate the site even more when they leave. A heritage site should also seek to be something with which the local community can identify themselves giving them a greater sense of place and pride. (Garrod and Fyall, 2000). If a heritage site wants to fulfil their overall mission they must be financially sound. Besides that the site should work in harmony with the local community. Use of the heritage site should not be at the expense of locals. When this works well, heritage sites can have an important economic multiplier effect throughout the local community. Finally, a heritage site should increasingly provide a high quality of services to their visitors if they want to compete in the ever more crowded tourism marketplace (Garrod and Fyall, 2000). Getting a UNESCO World Heritage status will not be a very big change for centrally located sites since they normally already have a great number of visitors, but decentralized sites could experience an increase in visitors. This could give more visitor pressure but can also lead to more awareness. If it either brings pressure or awareness will depend on two things, is there a certain type of visitor management introduced since the listing, and is the physical environment adapted to visitors (Page, 1995)? Visitor management could be introduced to prevent or limited the negative consequences of visitors, if this is implied the site manager understands its responsibility to put the site before the visitors. This visitor management is required because a World Heritage site, especially the centrally located, will always be an attractive destination. A site manager could be too late with installing his visitor management, and then management becomes damage control. Besides the management some sites have to adapt to the growing interest from outside, they have to make environmental changes in order to facilitate the growing number of visitors. Listing a heritage site could bring positive changes to underdeveloped areas, it can stimulate the gentrification process which improves the state of the buildings (Aa, van der, 2005). One thing should be clear at all times, preserving the site is more important than pleasing the visitors Marketing Heritage Heritage tourism can be seen as a part of special interest tourism and like mentioned before, heritage sites usually attract a mix of international and domestic visitors. In a lot of cases, the majority are commonly domestic tourists due to their identification with their history and culture. This is an important fact when looking at the seasonality, patterns of visitor behaviour, marketing, and site management (Nuryanti, 1996).

35 An important concept in tourism marketing is segmentation, especially when looking at heritage tourism. Although the market for heritage tourism is heterogeneous, Prentice (1993) states that it can be divided into five predominant groups: 1. professionals, 2. educated visitors, 3. groups or families 4. school children, 5. nostalgia-seeker. According to Prentice (1993) there are other important factors, besides the social characteristics of visitors that have to be taken into account when looking at segmentation. Successful marketing looks at these different segments and will try to target those consumers who may be predisposed to purchase the product. Heritage as a product brings one problem, it is usually considered to be part of the public domain and therefore concerns are often expressed when delivering experiences to tourists a clash appears between heritage preservation and the private enterprises. This automatically draws attention to the perceived authenticity and falsification involved in the production and reproduction of cultural heritage (Nuryanti, 1996). When marketing a heritage site it is important to notice the scale of the site in relation to possible markets only a minority of heritage sites can become international attractions. The scale of the heritage site will have important implications for related factors such as length of stay and its role in influencing the choice of tourism products (Nuryanti, 1996). Another important factor is that the heritage site must be of sufficient value in its own right to create the possibility to attract international tourists. The Taj Mahal in India or the Pyramids in Egypt are such locations that cause tourists to travel to those countries. The secondary attractions are those sites that tourists will visit once they already arrived in a country, the site itself is not a major determinant in the choice of destination (Jenkins, 1993). Therefore, it is important to match the heritage site to the appropriate market. When marketing the heritage site it is also important to take into account that heritage tourism is part of cultural tourism in a broader sense. As mentioned before, for most tourists culture is a secondary attribute in the choice for a destination and sometimes it is not consciously rated at all. Therefore, it is important to not divorce build heritage from other tourist attractions in the same area. A heritage site should be viewed as one of the components within the larger tourism market.

36 4. Curacao 4.1. Introduction See what makes Curacao special! Exquisite beaches and spectacular diving, stunning architecture, activities, and adventures for every interest plus multicultural diversity, intriguing music, art, and cuisine. Experience the best of Curacao. Escape to the Caribbean s hidden treasure. (Curacao, 2013a). Curacao, or in Papiamentu Kòrsou, is an island situated in the Southern Caribbean Sea, off the coast of Venezuela. The country of Curacao consists of the main island and the small, uninhabited island 'Klein Curacao' (Little Curacao). The origin of the word Curacao is explained in different theories. One of the most likely explanations stems from the word Corazon (Heart), this is the word the Spanish used to describe the island at some point. This word got adapted by famous Portuguese mapmakers into their own language, Curacau or Curacao. Today the island is locally known as Dushi Korsou (Sweet Curacao). This chapter will provide an overview of the history of Curacao, a description of Willemstad will be given and how the historical districts Punda, Otrobanda, Pietermaai and Scharloo developed over time History The island of Curacao is a self governing country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The Kingdom consists of four parts: the Netherlands, Aruba, Curacao, and Sint Maarten. These four parts are referred to as countries and are equal partners within the Kingdom. However the Netherlands itself also consist out of four parts: Provinces of Holland1, Bonaire, Saba, and Sint Eustatius (figure 4.1.). The Netherlands, excluding the three special municipalities, comprises roughly 98% of the Kingdom s land area and population. Most of the Kingdom s affairs are administrated by Holland, this is done on behalf of the entire Kingdom of the Netherlands. Aruba, Curacao, and Sint Maarten are dependent on the Netherlands (Koninklijkhuis, 2010). 1 Because the Netherlands as a country consist of four parts this thesis will refer to the Netherlands on the East side of the North Atlantic Ocean as Holland in order to make a clear distinction.

37 Figure 4.1. The Kingdom of the Netherlands Source: Wikipedia Kingdom of the Netherlands Location Tree, Before the Europeans set foot on Curacao in 1499, the island was inhabited by Arawak Indians. There are a number of archaeological sites found on the north coast in caves and on locations on the south coast near lagoons and tranquil beaches. At least several Arawak villages were identified. Artefacts that were found mainly refer to deposits containing pottery, charcoal, shells, stones, bones, and rock paintings that dating back to the Archaic age (2500 B.C.) and the Ceramic age (500 A.D.). The island society of Curacao that we know today owes its origin to the expansion of Europe in the 15th and 16th century and covers approximately 450km². The island was discovered by Alonso de Ojeda, one of Columbus lieutenants, in The Spanish enslaved most of the indigenous population under the leadership of Ojeda. The population was relocated to other colonies where workers were needed. The island remained in the hands of Spain until the Dutch conquest in This was the period in which the Dutch were internationally dominating the trade and the sea, and the settlement was created by the Dutch West India Company (WIC). The WIC founded the capital of Curacao, Willemstad, on the banks of the inlet, the 'Schottegat'. The lack in gold deposits made others ignore Curacao. But the natural harbour located on the island proved to be an ideal spot to establish a trading city. At that time, commerce and shipping were Curacao s most important activity. The Dutch became leaders in international slave trade in the 17th century. In 1622 Curacao became the centre of Atlantic slave trade. Africans were taken from their home land and transported to Brazil and Curacao. At both locations the slaves were sold to rich plantation owners from across America. Curacao was one of the largest slave depots of the Caribbean at that time. A great deal of trading took place between the Dutch and the British between the end of the 17th and the beginning of the 19th century. In this period of time

38 the French also tried to take over the island. The island got into British hands by 1807, but the Dutch regained control of Curacao in 1815 (UNESCO World Heritage Centre, 2013l). Figure 4.2. Curacao 1836 Source: Ron van Oers, The island remained relatively quiet, it was not until the 1920s and 1930s that the island experienced a large influx of worldwide immigrants. These immigrants turned the island into the multicultural melting pot that it is today. In 1954 the colonial status of Curacao changed, and in 1955 they became self-governing within the Kingdom of the Netherlands (UNESCO World Heritage Centre, 2013l).

39 Figure 4.3. Map of the Caribbean Source: DushiCuracao.info. After Curacao became a self-governing island, the island attempted to capitalize there peculiar history that they commonly collected since 1954 in order to expand the tourism industry. The first elected Island Council got a 30 year anniversary celebration, he inaugurated the national flag and the official anthem. This made the island and the movement to separate the island completely from the Antillean federation steadily stronger. With this political struggle, a referendum was held on the 8th of April 2005, the inhabitants could vote whether they wanted to stay within the Dutch Caribbean or if they would like to get a 'status aparte' (separate status) outside the Dutch Caribbean but remain inside the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The population voted for the separate status. After another referendum on May 15th 2009, where 52% voted supported the separate status, The Dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles came into effect on the 10th of October 2010 (Curacao, 2013a). The capital of the island Willemstad is a typical port town. The focus of the capital is neighbouring English, Spanish, and French colonies on the mainland of South America and in the Caribbean. Because of the frequent trade with South America, it did not stop with the exchange of goods. The trade connection led to the reciprocal adoption of cultural elements. Therefore, Curacao has an Iberian tinge, this reflection can be found in the architectural similarities between the 19th century parts of Willemstad and the Venezuelan city of Coro, also a UNESCO World Heritage site. This was not only the result of the trade connection with South America but also of the settlement of Sephardic Jews from Portugal and Spain, who visited the island in the 17th century by way of Amsterdam, they

40 have had a significance influence on economy and the culture of the island. Around 1730, 50% of the white population on Curacao was representing the Jewish community. Another ethnicity that entered the island were the Africans, since Curacao was a centre of the slave trade at one period (UNESCO World Heritage Centre, 2013l). The Sint Anna Bay forms the narrow entrance to the sheltered inland bay of Schottegat. The city developed equally on both sides of the bay. Both the Sint Anna Bay as well as the Schottegat are excellent deepwater harbours. In the 17th century the colony started at the eastern side of the bay, the area is known as Punda. Otrobanda is located on the western side of the bay and was developed in the 18th century. A little later the area around the Waaigat, the inner bay behind an elongated peninsula facing the Caribbean, was developed. Also located on the western side. In the second half of the 20th century a lot of prosperous members of the community left the island. This caused the condition of the city to decline (UNESCO World Heritage Centre, 2013l) Description of Willemstad The World Heritage site Willemstad was, besides capital of Curacao, also the capital of the Netherlands Antillean until the separate status the island obtained in The city has approximately inhabitants, the island counts inhabitants in total (CBS, 2012). Because of its Dutch looking architecture, Willemstad is sometimes referred to as Amsterdam of the Caribbean. The buildings that have a Dutch looking appearance usually are not Dutch, they are originally Portuguese. The city is situated on the south-east part of the island, and is located at a natural harbour, the Schottegat. The Sint Anna bay makes the connection between the Schottegat and the Caribbean Sea. The oldest boroughs are located on both sides of the bay, Otrobanda on the west side and Punda on the east. Since 1886 these boroughs are connected via the Queen Emma Bridge (pontoon bridge or The Swinging Old Lady ). Since 1997, the historic area of Willemstad, the inner city and harbour became part of the World Heritage List. The city features a townscape of four historic urban boroughs Punda, Otrobanda, Pietermaai, and Scharloo separated by the open waters of the natural harbour. Including the buffer zones, which link and set the boundaries for the four historic districts, the city covers an area of 190 hectares. Each of the four districts is different because of its own unique morphology the shape and form of the artefacts. This is a result of a successive planning concept, but besides the differences the four areas all share a unique tropicalized historical architecture of Dutch origin (UNESCO World Heritage Centre, 2013l). The core of the site consists of the Sint Anna Bay, part of the Caribbean Sea, Punda, and most of Otrobanda. Fortification on both sides of the bay protected the entrance to the city Punda with the Water Fort and Otrobanda with the Rif Fort.

41 The other two historic urban districts Pietermaai, Scharloo, and Kortijn are transmission areas. The two buffer zones are also part of the World Heritage site (UNESCO World Heritage Centre, 2013l) The Development of the Historic Districts The historic area of Willemstad stands out for the diversity in the historical morphology of its four historic districts Punda, Otrobanda, Pietermaai, and Scharloo. (UNESCO World Heritage Centre, 2013l). The historical architecture of the city is of European origin and unique within its tropical setting. Something like this cannot be found else were in the Dutch West or East Indies. Punda represents a dense and compact historical urban structure, reflecting its origin as a fortified town surrounded by ramparts. Pietermaai and Scharloo enjoy the relative freedom of space resulting in an open layout of streets lined by detached and often quite luxurious dwellings, while Otrobanda features both an open compound layout and a dense alley structure. (UNESCO World Heritage Centre, 2013l). Historic Willemstad accommodates 765 listed monuments, mostly historic mansions, shop houses and townhouses, but besides the bigger monuments one will also find typical small popular dwellings. Major monuments are Fort Amsterdam, Water Fort and Rif Fort facing the Caribbean Sea, and the Synagogue Mikvé Israël Emanuel. Monuments on Curacao must be at least fifty years old and of considerable importance because of its beauty, significance for science, art value, the nation's history, or its value for the tradition and customs of the people. The World Heritage City Willemstad consists out of a core area, transmission areas, and buffer zones. The Sint Anna Bay, part of the Caribbean Sea, and the historic districts Punda and a larger part of Otrobanda from the core area of the site. The transmission areas consist of the historic districts Pietermaai, Scharloo, and Kortijn. The buffer zones are the waters of the Waaigat and the surroundings between Pietermaai and Scharloo. Another buffer zone is the area north of the property stretching to the boundary of the site is (Curacaomonuments, 2012).

42 4.4.1 Punda Figure 4.4. Map of Punda Source: UNESCO World Heritage Centre, 2013m. Punda is the oldest district within the heritage site, the borough covers 9 hectares on the east bank of the Sint Anna Bay and is well-known for the houses that are situated at the Handelskade. The name Punda refers to the word 'point', this refers to the tip of land on which it was build. The area started to develop with the construction of Fort Amsterdam between , which was designed according to the Old Dutch fortification system (Oud-Nederlands Stelsel). The fort with its five bastions was a selfcontained settlement that covered 1,5 ha. The fort had its own church and water supply system, and it was the residence of the governor. In 1639 the southern bastion was demolished, the materials were reused to build a wall from the eastern bastion to the Waaigat, with this wall isolated the tip of the peninsula from the hinterland and thereby laying the basis for the establishment of a fortified town (UNESCO World Heritage Centre, 2013l). Around 1650, a fortified city was laid out adjacent to the Fort on an orthogonal grid pattern of narrow streets and alleys. By 1674 it was enlarged by filling part of the Waaigat. By the beginning of the 18th century there were over two hundred dwellings build within the ramparts the buildings were mostly two- or three-storeys high with balconies, located on long narrow plots. Later on galleries were added to the front facades. Within the historic district of Punda one of the most striking buildings is the synagogue Mikvé Israël Emanuel, build in The sober but impressive interior of this building the oldest type in the New World (western hemisphere) is an exact copy of the Portuguese synagogue (Esnoga) in Amsterdam (UNESCO World Heritage Centre, 2013l). Typical for Punda are the tightly

43 laid out multi-storey shop houses that were designed to cope with the limited space that was available within the ramparts (figure 4.5.). Figure 4.5. Punda 1748 Source: Ron van Oers, Figure 4.6. Punda 1748 Source: Ron van Oers, 2001.

44 The ramparts were removed due to a change in the military defence strategy in the beginning of the 1860s. Punda still remains the main shopping area within the historic district of Willemstad and the centre of the national government is now located in the Fort. Until the separation of the Netherlands Antilles, the fort was the residence of the Governor of the Netherlands Antilles (Curacao, 2012a). Figure 4.7. Punda 1825 Source: Kuijlaars, D., Victorina, A., Kraan, C., 2012.

45 Otrobanda Figure 4.8. Map of Otrobanda Source: UNESCO World Heritage Centre, 2013m. The historic borough of Otrobanda covers 50 hectares and was developed in the early 18th century in order to cope with the increasing demand for urban space for the people of Willemstad, until 1707 there was no development on this side of the Sint Anna Bay. The name Otrobanda means the 'other side' which refers to its location on the other west bank of the Sint Anna Bay. Otrobanda developed quite differently from Punda because with its unfortified open lay-out of low-rise structures, this was because Otrobanda was not enclosed by defence walls. At first the buildings in Otrobanda could not exceed one story, because if they did they could be in the line of fire directed to Fort Amsterdam. Besides from the southern area, where a working class neighbourhood developed, there was not a lot of density (UNESCO World Heritage Centre, 2013l). Four different quarters, each with a different structure can be identified within Otrobanda. The Alley Area Stegengebied a maze of narrow streets and alleys. The Corral Area Koralengebied with its spacious walled-in yards accommodating a mansion and servants dwellings. The Ijzerstraat Area with sloping curved streets. And the last is the Hoogstraat Area the uphill area of Otrobanda which became a luxurious residential quarter in the second half of the 19th century. The area was dominated by Belvédére the governor's residence in those days. Recently there has been some development in the Ijzerstraat area, it has been developed into the Kura Hulanda hotel and museum complex. They follow a unique concept where hotel guests stay in restored historic dwellings. The streets, alleys and intimate squares form the hotel's infrastructure used as its corridors and lounges.

46 Another contrast to formal Punda is that Otrobanda has retained its character as a colourful and lively working class district (Curacaomonuments, 2012) Pietermaai Figure 4.9. Map of Pietermaai Source: UNESCO World Heritage Centre, 2013m. The transmission areas Pietermaai and Scharloo started to develop later on. In the 18th and 19th century the east of Punda started to develop into the Pietermaai area (9 hectares). The area Pietermaai is named after the captain Pieter de Meij that settled himself on Curacao in Pietermaai consist of a small piece of land between the ocean and the 'Waaigat'. Part of the Waaigat was drained in order to develop Pietermaai further (Curacaomonuments, 2012). Rich shipmasters and traders settled themselves in this area, and after 1816, high ranking Dutch administrators developed the area further. This results in linear development of colorful mansions along the coast (UNESCO World Heritage Centre, 2013l). Nowadays the area is partially restored and a lot of Dutch students including me are living in this area.

47 Scharloo Figure Map of Scharloo Source: UNESCO World Heritage Centre, 2013m. To the north of the Waaigat there is another transmission area Scharloo that covers 25 hectares (figure 4.5.). In the 18th century this was a plantation area but it transformed in the 19th century. A wealthy residential area was developed and favoured by wealthy Jewish merchants. Kortijn is the transmission area that developed on the north-west of Otrobanda. Another plantation was developed here, of which the main house still survives. Compared to the other transmission areas, the buildings are modest in scale but they are considerable interesting because they include some excellent examples of early 20th century popular dwellings (UNESCO World Heritage Centre, 2013l). Figure Scharloo 1909 Source: Kuijlaars, D., Victorina, A., Kraan, C., 2012.

48 Figure Punda Otrobanda Scharloo Pietermaai 1825 Source: Ron van Oers, The Architecture Historically the architecture of Willemstad started with the implementation of the Dutch styles of the 16th and 17th century. The houses in Punda were traditionally Dutch style two to three stories high on a narrow frontage. Usually the ground floor of these buildings was used as a shop or a warehouse and the stories above were living spaces. Due to the influence of the climate, Willemstad gradually adapted his own architectural style, with the use of local materials and craftsmanship. In the 18th centuries wooden or stone galleries were introduce to protect against the sun. During this period in time the socalled Curacao Baroque architecture evolved, a unique feature is the curve gable. In the 19th century these gables became straight and galleries were incorporated into the house fronts (UNESCO World Heritage Centre, 2013l) Willemstad World Heritage City The historic city of Willemstad had to go a long way before earning the UNESCO World Heritage status in December The historic core of the city had suffered from the public revolt that happened in May of 1969, as a result of the city fires, that were ignited by the revolting masses, part of the key historic areas were destroyed. The next two decades that followed were filled with neglect of the city's

49 historic structures. A Building Ordinance that dated from 1935 was the sole instrument to regulate the city's development. The ambition to revitalize the city and have historic Willemstad inscribed on the World Heritage List started a development of a coherent package of financial and legal instruments for the protection of the historic city. In 1988 the ICAW Interregional Committee Action Willemstad was created. It took about ten years to finally get rewarded with the status of World Heritage City in December With this status, historic Willemstad is acknowledged as a city of outstanding universal value and as part of the cultural heritage of mankind. Besides being outstanding on its own, the meaning of Willemstad also is that it belongs to a family of city's that are established overseas by the Dutch. Other cities that were founded by the Dutch West India Company are New York 1625, Nieuw Amsterdam in the United States of America; Paramaribo 1667 in Suriname; Reclife 1637, Maritsstad in Brazil. And other cities that were established by the Dutch East India Company, Cape-town 1652, Kaapstad in South Africa; Galle 1640 and Colombo 1656 in Sri Lanka; and Jakarta 1619 in Indonesia. From these cities with Dutch colonial origin, two other cities are inscribed on the World Heritage List: the old town of Galle and its fortifications and the historic inner city of Paramaribo became World Heritage Sites in 1988 an 2002 (Curacaomonuments, 2012). Besides the cities that were established by the Dutch, Willemstad also shares common cultural history with other cities such as Old Havana, the Juan Historic Site, Cartagena de Indias, the Colonial City of Santo Domingo, and other cities of English and French origin. This common history of colonial European origin, seemingly strange, is expressed in an astonishing diversity of cultural heritage within the region. Together with the historic cities and sites that are already inscribed on the World Heritage List, Willemstad belongs to a distinct category of cities which form a regional system linked by the cords of a common cultural history, each with a distinct expression of its own. (UNESCO World Heritage Centre, 2013l). This is a small part of the justification of why Willemstad should be inscribed on the World Heritage List. In the end the historic area of Willemstad stands out as a type of city which demonstrates continuity in historical and social-cultural development over the course of centuries through an authentic historic urban structure and architecture (UNESCO World Heritage Centre, 2013l). All of these reasons combined made it possible for Willemstad to be inscribed on the World Heritage List. The inscription of Willemstad is based on the criteria's (ii), (iv), and (v) of paragraph 24 of the 'Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention' (Curacaomonuments, 2012): (ii) Exhibit an important interchange of human values, over a span of time or within a cultural area of the world, on developments in architecture or technology, monumental arts, town-planning or landscape design.

50 (iv) Be an outstanding example of a type of building or architectural or technological ensemble or landscape which illustrates significant stages in human history. (v) Be an outstanding example of a traditional human settlement or land-use which is representative of cultures, especially when it has become vulnerable under the impact of irreversible change. The World Heritage Committee recommended that Willemstad should be inscribed on the World Heritage List by stating: The Historic Area of Willemstad is a European colonial ensemble in the Caribbean of outstanding value and integrity, which illustrates the organic growth of a multicultural community over three centuries and preserves to a high degree significant elements of the many strands that came together to create it.

51 5. Tourism on Curacao 5.1. Introduction Curacao is chosen as the Favourite Caribbean Destination for 2012 by the readers of About.com, one of the Top 10 Destinations for 2012 by Frommer's, and a 2012 Honeymoon Hot Spot by Condé Nast Traveller, the tiny, yet bustling island of Curacao has become one of the hottest destinations in the Caribbean for discerning travellers. this is how the Curacao Tourist Board is describing their island. Furthermore they see their island as a paradise for scuba divers and nature lovers alike. Its ruggedly beautiful landscape provides endless opportunities for fun. Conquer the island's open spaces and enjoy exhilarating hiking, biking, and ATV tours. Immerse yourself in mysterious and colorful underwater worlds at more than 60 diving locations. Relax on beaches, both intimate and secluded. Explore Curacao's crown jewel the capital city Willemstad a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a lively port full of high-end retailers, restaurants, and nightlife spots. Whatever you're looking for, Curacao promises you a magnificent travel experience. (Curacao, 2012). The marketing tools become clear when reading this advertisement. Curacao has a number of unique selling points. First of all, the climate sun, sand, and surf is the number one reason why people want to travel to the Caribbean and Curacao. Curacao is located in the tropics, just 12 degrees north of the Equator. The average temperature is about 27 degrees Celsius, a warm and sunny climate all year round. The different kinds of beaches will be brought to your attention when looking for information about Curacao. All the different dive spots are the second most important marketing objective. The island offers a lot of different diving spots and they claim that they are one of the best in the world. This is not the number one marketing objective since Bonaire is right around the corner and that specific island is famous for its underwater world. Thirdly, the historical port capital Willemstad as a World Heritage Site plays an important role in marketing the island. The dynamic of the city, the architecture, activities, and neighbourhoods shape the historical centre of the island. There are a few other, less important marketing objectives: the vibrant architecture, the colorful history, a European flavour, African heritage, Jewish culture, a vibrant art scene, carnival, and a friendly and laidback population (Curacao, 2012). Thus, the three main assets cultural and natural that could be used to market Curacao are: the climate and the beaches, the different diving spots, and the World Heritage site Willemstad. This chapter will present an overview of the economy on Curacao, how tourism is linked to the Curacao economy, what are the main tourism attractors, the visitor trends and their expenditure and what is the profile of the tourist visiting Curacao by air and by cruise ship.

52 5.2. The Economy on Curacao Between 1998 and 2005, the economy on Curacao did not experience any growth. It was barely above zero and sometimes it even declined. In 2006 the GDP finally grew with 1%. Between 2007 and 2008 there was a significant upsurge in growth. In the second half of 2008 the global recession began to have a depressing impact on the growth of the GDP, the growth slowed about 1% in Since 2000, the economic growth has fluctuated widely, and during it was particularly high (table 5.1.) (CBS, 2009). Table 5.1. Economic Growth Trends on Curacao (%) Source: Central Bureau of Statistics, Curacao enjoys a relatively high standard of living in comparison with other Caribbean and South American countries measured by GDP per capita (table 5.2.). Compared to other Caribbean countries, only the Bahamas has a higher income level. Aruba was not included in the IMF statistics but has an estimated GDP per capita of $ 25,922 in 2008 (CBS, 2009). Table 5.2. GDP per Capita in Selected Countries ($) Source: Central Bureau of Statistics, IMF, October On certain topics there were no numbers beyond 2008, 2009 or 2011.

53 In 1988 the number of people living on the island of Curacao was , however during the late 1990s especially in the period from 1998 to 2002 the island experienced a high level of emigration. This emigration has contributed to a sustained downturn in the economy and high levels of unemployment. A slow recovery in the population has started since 2002, which reached about people in 2009 (table 5.3./5.4.). Immigration, natural increase, and the return of former residents all have contributed to a slow growth in the population (Halcrow, 2010). Table 5.3. Population, Labour Force and Unemployment on Curacao Source: Central Bureau of Statistics, population estimates and Labour Force Survey Table 5.4. Employed Population by Gross Monthly Income and by Gender on Curacao Source: CBS Labour Force Sample Survey, The high economic growth that Curacao has experienced over the last few years has led to a large reduction in the unemployment rate: from the highest in ,2% to 9,7% in There are a number of sectors that are contributing to the GDP of Curacao (table 5.5.). The largest contributors are trade and transport, tourism, and financial and business services (Sustainable Economic Growth in Curacao, 2009).

54 Table 5.5. Sector Contribution to GDP (%) on Curacao Source: Economic Significance of the Island Territory of Curacao Working Group on Sustainable Economic Growth in Curacao , April Tourism is one of the key players in the economy of Curacao and therefore important to this thesis when researching if the UNESCO status could play a role in stimulating the economy and especially the tourist sector (table 5.6.). Table 5.6. Employment in Tourism on Curacao Source: Halcrow, Tourism and the Curacao Economy One of the major challenges for the economy on Curacao is to diversify the economy from its reliance on offshore financial services and the oil sector. The service sector has great potential, however to constitute a driver of national economic activity is limited by the fact that much of the economic output is either non-traded Government services or sheltered real estate and utilities. On the other hand, there are internationally traded services that have great growth potential, the main one being tourism (Halcrow, 2010). Over the years tourism has become a major contributor to the economy. By increasing its share of GDP from 10,5% in 2004 to a little over 18,5% in 2009, the tourism sector has outperformed all other sectors. Since 2006, tourism has been the primary generator of the acceleration in national economic growth. Besides that the sector has also been a major contributor to wealth creation,

55 employment opportunities, and increasing the living standards on the island (Halcrow, 2010). It is expected that, by the time of 2014, the contribution of tourism to economic growth, wealth creation, and living standards will increase to 28% of the GDP. To achieve this goal, the Curacao Tourist Board recommended an implementation of a high growth tourism development program. The aim of the program is to increase the stay over tourist arrivals from an estimated in 2009 to approximately in To achieve this goal, an average annual growth rate of 14% is needed (Halcrow, 2010). The Curacao Tourist Board considers this growth rate the maximum achievable rate over the five year period presented. Besides the maximum growth scenario the Tourism Board also presented a minimum achievable rate over the five year period. This projected to increase the stay over tourist arrivals from an estimated in 2009 to by 2014, representing an average growth rate of about 10% on a yearly basis (Halcrow, 2010). To establish either 14% or 10% growth, two key factors are important. First, the carrying capacity of the island. Secondly, the competitiveness of the tourism product. In order to increase the islands capacity to welcome more tourists, the number of stay-over facilities has to grow (table 5.7./5.8./5.9.). At the moment Curacao has a total of tourist bedrooms but by the end of 2016 this will be increased with bedrooms, which brings the estimated total of tourist bedrooms in 2016 on 8628.

57 Table 5.8. New Room Inventory Forecast on Curacao Source: Curacao, 2013e. Table 5.9. Hotel Occupancy Rate on Curacao Source: Tourism Association, As mentioned above tourism has become one of the major drivers of the Curacao economy, and outperformed all other major sectors by a large margin. Between 2004 and 2009, tourism achieved an average growth rate of 14% yearly. Compared to the growth rates of 4% in the trade sector, and a decline of 4% in the finance and business sector, tourism has been a major driver for the economy of Curacao (figure 5.1.). With this growth, the share in GDP has grown too, from 10,5% in 2004 to 18,5% by 2009 (Halcrow, 2010).

58 Figure 5.1. Sector Performance on Curacao Source: Halcrow, Besides being a major driver for the whole economy, tourism contributes directly to tax revenues, job creation, foreign exchange earnings, and the sector has a strong positive linkage with other sectors of the economy, like transportation services. About 21% of the Island Government tax receipts coming from tourism, this is about156 million Naf3. Each tourist has to pay 7% tourist taxes when s/he is staying in an apartment or a hotel on the island. The 7% will be calculated over the amount the tourists are paying for their accommodation. About 18% of the total employment on the island is generated by tourism, around jobs depending directly and indirectly (table 5.6.). In 2008 and 2009 there was a significant growth in tourism depending jobs due to the growth in arrivals and the opening of new hotels. Tourism generates about 588 million Naf to foreign exchange earnings, this represents about 16% of the total foreign exchange for the entire Dutch Caribbean (CBS, 2010). The challenge for the tourism sector is to ensure the sustainability of development. Therefore sustainable growth is necessary the ability to maintain market share, the ability to create economic, environmental, and cultural benefits, the ability to continually add value and so on. Sustainable growth ultimately depends on competitiveness (figure 5.2.). 3 Naf (Antillean Guilder) 1 Naf = 0,43 Euro.

59 Figure 5.2. Tourism Competitiveness Pyramid Source: Halcrow, Sustainable growth is the ultimate objective of national competitiveness in tourism. It is heavily depending on successful management and delivery with respect to each of the competitive factors highlighted on the supporting layers. The implication is that a deficiency in any one component can undermine the capacity of a destination to meet the expectations of tourists. (Halcrow, 2010). Cultural heritage and thus the World Heritage Site can play a great part in creating sustainable growth, it is one of the five tourism products Tourism Attractors There are multiple tourist attractors on Curacao, the Curacao Tourist Board defined the main attractors. First of all, the natural environment this consist of the climatic conditions, the marine environment, terrestrial environment, and the flora and fauna. Besides the natural environment, the build environment can be an attractor for tourists. It is important maintain and creates a locally distinctive character of the island's historic landscape, including the wealth of buildings of special architectural, historic, and cultural interest. The historic landscape includes the monuments in the city centre and the land houses scattered around the countryside. The core city of Willemstad as a World Heritage Site, significantly contributes to the image of Curacao as a special urban destination (Curacao Tourist Board, 2010). It is necessary to continue the maintenance and repair of this build heritage it is essential to emphasize and maintain this unique character of the island in order to create a sustainable environment for tourism. Natural resources are a great attractor too. The natural resources include the

60 beaches, dive sites, natural parks, and reserves. Besides the natural appealing attractions of Curacao, Curacao is also visited for its cultural heritage and visitor attractions. Other visitor attractors are: people, communities, accommodation, restaurants, services, and visitor facilitation (Halcrow, 2010). Both the build heritage and the cultural heritage the tangible and the intangible could play an important role in the attraction of visitors and creating a sustainable tourism flow to the island. These tourism attractors can be used in order to create tourism products Visitor Trends Holland is one of the major countries that brings the tourism business to Curacao, 34% of the stay-over arrivals in 2009 came from Holland. During the first half of this decade there were over stay over arrivals annually. From 2006 the number of tourists increased significantly, from both the Dutch and Venezuelan markets. The stay-over arrivals reached a record amount of in The decrease in 2009 is due to the sharp decrease approximately 30% in Venezuelan visitors (table 5.10.). Table Stay-Over Tourist Arrivals by Source Market on Curacao Source: Curacao, 2013c. Key characteristics and products need to be matched up with the consumer demand. The passenger Embarkation/Disembarkation (E/D) cards for the year 2007 were collected by CTB and gave a good overview of the reasons for visiting the island of Curacao. The main reasons were the climate, visiting friends, and diving (table 5.11.) (Halcrow, 2010). This could be one of the main reasons why the climate and the diving spots are key players in the marketing objectives.

61 Table Reason for Visiting Curacao in 2011 Source: Curacao Tourist Board, Tourist Expenditure Tourism is one of the fastest growing market segments on the island of Curacao. The contribution to the GDP has increased a lot over the years, from 10,5% in 2004 to 18,5% in Thus, even in times of economic recession, tourism is one of the market segments on Curacao that is still growing. Tourism can be seen as one of the primary generators of the acceleration in economic growth (Halcrow, 2010). The island keeps attracting more and more visitors and equally more and more income from tourism. Only the cruise tourists are a stable group that has not extensively grown compared to other tourism markets. The total of direct revenue from tourism has grown to an amount of 588 million Naf in 2008 (table 5.12.) this is only the direct expenditure by tourists, the combination of the direct and indirect contribution to the GDP is considerably larger, estimated at 941 million Naf (Halcrow, 2010). Table Tourism Sector Trends on Curacao Source: Curacao Tourist Board; Turistika; Curacao Economic Outlook 2009; BREA/FCCA.

62 The growth in expenditure was considerably higher than the growth in visitors during the period of An increase in revenue from 1088 Naf per stay over tourist to 1306 Naf in 2008 (table 5.13.). Table Nominal and Real Increases in Yield per Tourist and Tourist Bed Night on Curacao Source: Halcrow, In 2008 the tourist expenditure was equivalent to almost 12% of the GDP, this represents a real increase of 93% since One can state that the direct impact of the tourist expenditure is lower than the nominal value due to leakage of the expenditure from the economy by importing the goods and services that are necessary to support tourism. But the total impact of tourism direct and indirect is much greater. Tourism enterprises have to purchase goods and services that are supplied by other sectors this is the indirect impact of tourism. There is one more impact tourism can have, the induced impact. This is when the tourist is willing to spend his money on anything not related to tourism (Halcrow, 2010). Thus, the total impact of tourism is much greater than just the nominal value the multiplier effect. A model has been developed by the Curacao Tourist Board in 2007, the Turistika Economic Model. This model was developed to measure the tourism sector on Curacao. It has indicated that the revenue received from indirect and induced tourist expenditure is almost as large as the revenue received from direct tourist expenditure. Therefore to estimate the total impact of tourism the direct tourism expenditure should be multiplied with a factor of 1,6. In 2008 this amount can be estimated on 941 million Naf equivalent to 18% of the GDP (Halcrow, 2010) Visitor Profile In 2011 the Curacao Tourism Development Board conducted the Curacao Visitor Survey. The data were collected at the airport of Curacao and a total of USA, 491 Holland, 160 Venezuela, 40 Germany tourists were interviewed. Tourists travelling to Curacao do that either by airplane (table 5.14.) or cruise ship (table 5.15.).

63 Table Tourists Travelling by Air to Curacao Source: International Airport Curacao, Table Cruise Tourism to Curacao Source: Tourism Office, Visitor Profile by Air Most of the tourists that travel to Curacao are between years of age, after that the age group dominates (table 5.16.). Table Visitor Age Source: Curacao Visitor Survey The educational level of most of the visitors was professional formation (24,4%) or a Master or Doctor degree (23.3%). The most highly educated visitors come from the USA, nearly 80% has a undergraduate of a Master or Doctor degree (table 5.17.). Table Visitor Education Source: Curacao Visitor Survey The visitor satisfaction was rated to various attributes accommodations, eating&drinking, public transportation, activities, shopping, quality of service, and cleanliness of the restaurants. Rated with 1

64 as very low and 5 as very high. In the table below the CTB summarized who rated the attributes as very high (table 5.18.). Table Visitor Satisfaction Source: Curacao Visitor Survey Besides the satisfaction, the Curacao Visitor Survey also asked what the general impression was of the island (table 5.19.). Table Visitor Impression Source: Curacao Visitor Survey It is also important to look at the travel patterns of visitors purpose of visit, first time visitors, travel party, and which accommodations are used (table 5.20/5.21/5.22/5.23). Table Purpose of Visit Source: Curacao Visitor Survey Table First Time Visitors (Vacation and Business) Source: Curacao Visitor Survey, 2011.

65 Table Travel Party Source: Curacao Visitor Survey Table Accommodations4 Source: Curacao Visitor Survey Visitor Profile by Cruise Ship The Cruise Visitor Profile and Expenditure Report of the Curacao Tourist Board researched the different profiles of the tourists visiting the island by cruise ship. Tourists arriving by cruise ship will not stay-over night. In 2010 and 2011, 3126 cruise passengers were interviewed. The most respondents were in the age category of years old. During this period there was no special increase or decrease among a certain age group (table 5.24.). Table Visitor Age Source: Cruise Expenditure Report, Most of the tourists that were interviewed finished graduate school or graduate college (table 5.25.). 4 Resorts in Janthiel: Chogogo, Livingstone, and Papagayo. The tourists questioned by the CTB in 2011 did not stay in resorts.

66 Table Visitor Education Source: Cruise Expenditure Report, Most of the respondents came from the USA, but another important part came from the United Kingdom and the Caribbean & Central America (table 5.26.). Table Country of Origin Source: Cruise Expenditure Report, Over the years the satisfaction decreased a little among the cruise ship tourists (table 5.27.). Table Visitor Satisfaction - % that was very satisfied Source: Cruise Expenditure Report, 2011.

67 6. Research Methodology 6.1. Introduction There are many reasons for choosing Curacao and its capital Willemstad as a case study. First of all, Curacao is a typical Caribbean island that relies on tourism development to revitalize its urban historic capital city. The island has a very rich history of more than 500 years and the historic districts of the city are well preserved. Besides the rich history the main point of this research is the UNESCO status Willemstad got in 1997 this shows the cultural significance of the city. Heritage tourism development in this historic district is at an early stage that has often been ignored in academic research. For sustainable development of a touristic heritage destination, the academic inputs are necessary. Secondly, Curacao is located in the Caribbean and near South America. Within this area tourism and especially heritage tourism are well developed compared to Curacao. In comparison to other heritage destinations like Coro or Machu Picchu the amount of tourists that are visiting the island for its heritage is not very significant. However, the local government and other involved organizations are very ambitious to promote the heritage tourism industry in order to compete with other heritage destinations. The development of heritage tourism will be a major advance for the tourism industry. The socio-cultural impacts are likely to be neglected under such a economy-first principle. The third reason why Curacao makes a good case is that tourism is one of the major income generators of the island and UNESCO is one of their unique selling points that could and should be used to market the city and its heritage. Hence, I think this is not the case at the moment. Therefore, this research will also give an advice for the future how to benefit even more from the product that is already there. And finally, because the enslaved history of the island still lies deep with its inhabitants, communication will be hard sometimes. As a white skinned person you can expect different answers from locals than when the same questions are asked by their peers. Therefore, it will be difficult to conduct a qualitative research of in-depth interviews with the local community. Other heritage cities that are located in the same area will not have this problem because they did not know an enslaved history. Research design is a logical plan of data collection, analysis, and interpretation that will create the opportunity for the researcher to answer an initial set of research questions. Within this research design, three elements are important identification of relevant data, approaching and collecting data, and the analysis of the results (Philiber et al, 1980). This Chapter will present the design of this particular research, based on these three elements. The data collected from these elements will be presented in the following Chapters.

68 6.2. Research Design Case Study The overall objective of this research is to investigate the effects of the UNESCO status on the tourism of the island Curacao particularly looking at the economic impact of tourism development on Curacao. A case study as an empirical inquiry that could be used to investigate contemporary phenomenon within the real-life context, especially when the boundaries between phenomenon and context are not clearly evident (Yin, 2003). A case study is an ideal research method when contextual conditions are going to be taken into consideration. Within the case study approach there are two variations, namely a single case study or multi-case studies. Given the resource and time limit, a single case study of Curacao is adopted in this research. The overall aim of this research is to investigate the perception and the effects of the UNESCO status on the tourism of Curacao Mixed Methods The result of a case study approach relies on multiple sources of evidence. To generate validate research findings, it is not enough to use either qualitative or quantitative research methods (Neuman, 1997). For this research therefore, a mixed method research approach was used a single study that combines both qualitative and quantitative research methods. A mixed method research legitimates the use of multiple approaches when answering the research question, instead of restricting the choices of the researcher. This method is also known as triangulation a combination of methodologies in the study of the same phenomenon (Denzin, 1978). Sometimes the results might not be convergent, or even contradictory, and therefore a mixed method design allows a better understanding of the given phenomenon in question. The mixed methods that were used in this research are a qualitative method such as in-depth interviews, observations of both tourists and interviewees and a quantitative survey. Data were collected at both the individual level as well as the government and involved organizations, which would add a more broad understanding of the effects the UNESCO status had on the island of Curacao. The following methods were used in this research to gather both primary as well as secondary data. First of all, observations and an inspection of the site were made to get a direct impression of the heritage site under study, this can be considered as secondary data. Primary data were collected by indepth interviews that were conducted to local the government, community, stakeholders, and relevant individuals prior to the surveys. Surveys were distributed to tourists both those who arrived on the airport and those who were already in the city to examine their perception towards the capital city Willemstad and its UNESCO status.

69 Research Process This research started in February 2013 with the development of a topic and a preliminary literature review for the 'Research Workshop'. The research topic was narrowed down during the weeks that followed. The final research topic was selected after a second round of literature review and discussions during the Research Workshop. During this course the draft research proposal was outlined and the final research proposal got approved at the end of the course in March Since that time intensive literature review and analysis has been conducted. In April 2013 the author moved to Curacao to start the actual field work, during this period more literature was consulted Qualitative Study Qualitative research methods like in-depth interviews and observations were used to collect data on the perceived impact of the UNESCO status on the island of Curacao In-depth Interviews Various stakeholders were interviewed to obtain a wide spectrum of information, to supplement and triangulate with the findings from the surveys. Many valuable inputs could come from this approach since participants can also be observed for example their body language. Besides that, when a question is unclear it could be rephrased or explained. The primary data that is collected from the indepth interviews can assist in the revision of the quantitative surveys. The interviews were structured in such a way that the participants will have the opportunity to provide as much information as possible. Nine questions were designed to cover three major aspects, which will help to assess the image and implementation of the UNESCO status. Every interview starts by asking the interviewee what their favourite monument or place in the historical city is this is done to break the ice. Besides that the interviewees are asked if the interview can be recorded and if the researcher can mention their names in the eventual thesis if not anonymity is guaranteed. Question 2 and 3 are designed to find out what the interviewees' personal opinion is about the UNESCO status on Curacao and how the organization in question implements the status in their daily work. In an effort to incorporate the interviewees impression of the effects of the UNESCO status on Curacao, and if they thought Willemstad changed after receiving the status. In the next question the interviewees were asked if they could indicate some future perspectives of how the city should implement the UNESCO status. The last four questions concerned the strength, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of the status on the island. All these four elements were developed into a question Can you point out the strengths/weaknesses/opportunities/threats of the UNESCO status on Curacao. To make sure the designed questions were clear and not misleading, a pre-test was introduced before the actual interviews.

70 Sampling Method The in-depth interviews were conducted to investigate how different stakeholders perceive the effects of the UNESCO status on Curacao. When selecting the interviewees, maximum heterogeneity sampling method was used which requires a various group of stakeholders in the population that is related to the development and exploitation of the heritage site. Eventually, six groups of stakeholders are pointed out: namely the government, the developer of the heritage site, residents, tourists organizations, organizations that use the heritage site as a topic for their events, stakeholders who would like the situation to change. Except the community and tourists, 11 interviewees were selected, before going to Curacao two interviews were conducted in Holland, including one with the National UNESCO Commission Koosje Spitz and one with an official of the 'Rijksdienst van Cultureel Erfgoed' (Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands) Dre van Marrewijk, national coordinator/focal point of World Heritage. On Curacao the other 9 interviews were conducted, including two government officials Caroline Gonzales-Manuel, Department of Urban Development and Zulaika Mook Director of the Economic Department three executives of foundations that take care of the cultural heritage Herman George, CEO of the Monument Fund, George Schmidt, CEO of the Monument Foundation and Marcel van der Plank, chairman of the Monument Foundation one official from the Curacao Tourist Board Faisol Ayoubi, Senior Advisor Strategy Development & Planning one architect that organizes the Open Monument Day Dennis Klaus and finally one architect who is against the present development of cultural heritage on Curacao Carlos Weeber. All of the interviewees were interviewed between and , usually at their offices. They all were chosen because of the different insights they could bring to this research Formulation of the Interview Questions The interviewed informants are representing different interest groups in the exploitation of the UNESCO World Heritage Site Willemstad. The questions were focused on the impact and awareness of tourists upon the city and island does the city already experienced economic benefit from the UNESCO status and what can be done to stimulate this in the future. However, the interviews were semi-structured in order to reflect interviewees' particular focus and interest. The duration of each interview was limited to one, one and a half hours. In the beginning of each interview, the research objectives were informed to the interviewee. A tape recorder was only used when permitted by the interviewee. All the interviews were conducted face to face.

71 Data Analysis Analyzing the data collected from the in-depth interviews was done thematically. The data was reviewed several times in order to find similar themes among the responses with a major focus on the effects of the UNESCO status on Curacao. New information generated from these interviews was also added to the survey Quantitative Study Survey Method The impact of tourism has been researched a lot on a touristic island in the Caribbean as Curacao like the surveys collected from tourists when entering a Dutch Caribbean island by plane, VES surveys. But the only thing that has not been researched at all is the effect of the UNESCO status in this matter. Therefore, a questionnaire was developed to collect first hand data of tourists arriving to the island, tourists that are already visiting the city, and tourists that are relaxing at the beach since this is one of the islands major attractors. On the airport the arriving tourists that had to wait for their transportation were asked if they could fill in a survey, the response rate was 100% since they had to wait anyway. In the actual city, tourists make a lot of pictures on the Emma Bridge, I would suggest making a picture for them if I could ask some questions in return. A lot of tourists were glad to help. And usually on the beach the tourists are not in a rush to go anywhere so they will dedicate a little time to fill in the survey. The aim of this questionnaire was to investigate the awareness among tourists and how they perceive the island and the historic city Willemstad. A decision had to be made to choose a sample size, prior to the actual sampling. Several factors need to be taken into consideration: budget, time, response rate, and analytical tools. Similar researches that have been done previously could provide a reference to determine the sample size. The Cruise Expenditure Report of 2010, conducted by the Curacao Tourist Board, had a sample of Another survey that was conducted by the Curacao Tourist Board was the Curacao Visitor Survey of 2011, this research had a sample of 1233 respondents. Both researches took a year to conduct their surveys, given the time and budget limitations of this specific research, a sample of approximately 300 respondents was chosen. A pre-test has been conducted with 10 students from Holland who are living on Curacao in the historical city Centre to see if the questionnaire was clear enough. Nine out of the ten students did not have any difficulties with the questionnaire. The one student that did found the questionnaire hard had trouble understanding the English. Therefore, an English and a Dutch version were made. Random systematic sampling was adopted for this research. Approximately one out of the five tourists was questioned in the city. This are not exact numbers but when questioning a tourist in the city, usually about five others and maybe even more tourists pass by. On the airport one out of ten tourists was questioned considering a Boeing 747 can carry a maximum of 524 passengers and I was not able to question more than 50 tourists due to the limited time tourists had at the airport. The tourists

72 that were already visiting the historical city Willemstad were chosen as the starting point. Besides the city, questionnaires were also handed out at the airport when a plain from Holland, the United States, or Venezuela landed since these three are the main countries where the tourists on Curacao come from. Besides the tourists, the students living in Willemstad were asked to fill in a survey as well. To get a quicker response, the researcher read the questionnaire to the respondents and filled in the answers. The questionnaires were conducted in the period between and Design of the Questionnaire At the very beginning of the survey, a statement is provided which indicates the research objectives and to ensure the participant that their identity will stay anonymous. Besides that, the participant was also ensured that the outcome of the surveys was purposely meant to solely develop this research. The questionnaire consists out of seven sections, each with a different topic: Section Q1 5 socio-demographic information Section B: Q5 8 purpose, first time, reason for visiting Section C: Q9 knowledge of the UNESCO status Section D: Q knowledge and visitation Section E: Q perception of the city Section F: Q 16 role of UNESCO on Curacao Section G: Q general information Section A of the questionnaire the first five questions was designed to receive some sociodemographic information of the participants gender, age, education, occupation, and nationality. Section B consist out of question 6, 7, and 8 was designed to find out what the participants purpose of visiting Curacao is, and if this was the first time the participant was visiting the island. Besides that, the last question of this section will ask the participant if Willemstad was part of the reason for visiting Curacao. This will give an important insight in the marketing of the UNESCO World Heritage City abroad. Section C consist out of only one question, question 9, which will ask the participant whether they knew about the UNESCO World Heritage status of Willemstad or not. If the participant will answer with «no» they can skip the next two sections and go to question number 16. The next section, with its two questions, was designed to acquire information about the participants' knowledge on the UNESCO status of Willemstad and if they knew about the status, how did they receive this information. After this question the tourists were asked if they already visited Willemstad if the answer was «no» they can skip the next section and go to question number 16. The next four questions section E were designed to collect information on the perception of the city (did the tourist found the city worth visiting; do you consider Willemstad to be part of the heritage of Curacao; do you

73 consider Willemstad as World Heritage; do you think the image of the city has changed after it received the UNESCO status in 1997). The purpose of this section was to provide an insight in the tourists' perspective of how they perceive the city. This will be an important finding since this can be used for further developing the brand of UNESCO World Heritage City. Section F consists out of one question, question 16, all participants will be asked how the UNESCO status could play a role on the image of Willemstad as a cultural city, a multicultural city, or a touristic city. The outcome of this question could indicate in which way the status should be used according to tourists who are visiting the island. The last section was designed to collect general data about the tourists' perception of Curacao en if they could give some recommendations for the future. Question number 17 asked the participants opinion concerning several statements this can be helpful when developing a new sustainable tourism plan. And the last question asked what the participant thinks Curacao is missing when looking at the UNESCO status. The final question was not obligatory, this was an open question in which the participant was asked whether they had any final comments to positively improve the effects of the UNESCO status. The feedback gathered from the questionnaires was digitally processed via the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS 17.0 version) in order to display the findings through tables and figures to present the reader with simple and understandable information and to analyse the effects of the World Heritage listing on Curacao Observations This research adopted both participative and non-participative observations. The non-participative observations were conducted throughout the entire research. On site observations were made to get a general impression of the situation in the World Heritage City Willemstad. Besides that the daily life of the local inhabitants was observed and their participation in tourism. Participative observation was conducted through a guided tour with other tourists in the historical districts of Willemstad. The observations of the local population were important because actual in-depth interviews will not be possible since the answers they will give an outsider will be completely different than the answers they will give to one of their own. Since the time and budget limit of this research, it was not possible to find someone from within the community to conduct the interviews for me. The data collected from these observations were not analyzed in a systematic way but it served as background information.

74 7. Research Findings 7.1. Introduction This chapter will summarize the findings that were collected by quantitative and qualitative research. First of all, by discussing the outcome of the quantitative research, than the qualitative research will be addressed, and finally both will be summed up in a strength, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis Quantitative Findings Based on the official numbers obtained by the Curacao Tourist Board, the table below has been produced (table 7.1.). The overall market of visitors increased over the past years, with a peak in 2008 followed by a small increase. Between 2003 and 2011 there has been an yearly average increase of 10,5%. Despite the increase in this eight year period, the increase in the different countries was not uniform. The three countries where most of the tourists that are visiting Curacao come from are: Holland, the United States, and Venezuela. From 2003 to 2011 the market share of Holland steadily increased from 34,3% to 36,3%. The market share of the United States on the other hand was not that steady, it decreased between 2006 and 2007 and between 2008 and 2009, the overall market share of the US between 2003 and 2011 decreased from 18,1% to 16,1%. Venezuela also had an unsteady market share development. Their market share decreased between 2004 and 2006 and between 2008 and 2010, but overall in contrary to the US Venezuela has an increased market share. The market share of Venezuela increased between 2003 and 2011 from 11,3% to 15,8% and therefore Venezuela is becoming more important to Curacao. These numbers are necessary to see which tourists groups are the most important to Curacao. This is a important step, otherwise the collected data will not provide a realistic view of the situation on the island. The tourists that this research will focus on come from Holland, the United States, and Venezuela because these are the three main tourists groups, all together they have 68,2% of the market share.

75 Table 7.1. Tourist Arrivals by Source Market on Curacao Source: Curacao Tourist Board, In total 286 tourists were questioned both in the city, on the airport as well as on the beach of which 58,7% came from Holland (168), 28,3% from the United States (81) and 12,9% from Venezuela (37) (table 7.2.) Table 7.2. Curacao Visitor Nationality (n = 286) Source: Researcher's own elaboration, This research has tried to balance out, as much as possible, the ratio between men and woman in order to get the most genuine result (table 7.3./figure 7.1.). Table 7.3. Visitor Gender (n = 286) Source: Researcher's own elaboration, Figure 7.1. Visitor Gender

76 Overall, most of the questioned tourists are in the age category of 26 40, 110 out of the 286 participants. Especially Venezuela has a lot of tourists in this age category 75,7% of the Venezuelan participants. Holland has the most tourists in the age category (63) and (56). Visitors from the United States are mostly in the age groups (26) and (32) (table 7.4./figure 7.2.). Table 7.4. Visitor Age (n = 286) Source: Researcher's own elaboration, Figure 7.2. Visitor Age Source: Researcher's own elaboration, More than half of the questioned tourists have a under graduate (30,4%) or a post graduate (47,3%) degree (table 7.5./figure 7.3.). This can be linked to the age, since most of the visitors are above 26 years old. Table 7.5. Visitor Education (n = 286) Source: Researcher's own elaboration, 2013.

77 Figure 7.3. Visitor Education Source: Researcher's own elaboration, More than half of the questioned tourists 60,5% out of the 286 participants are employed by a company. But another interesting group on Curacao are the foreign students, especially from Holland. From Holland the frequency of students is 71 out of 168. This explains the high amount of participants from Holland in the age category Curacao is an island that receives a lot of interns each year and therefore this group is relatively big (table 7.6./figure 7.4.). A great amount of these interns live in the actual World Heritage Site usually Pietermaai. Table 7.6. Visitors Occupation (n = 286) Source: Researcher's own elaboration, 2013.

78 Figure 7.4. Visitor Occupation Source: Researcher's own elaboration, The majority of the tourists questioned visited Curacao for recreational vacation reasons. The visitors from Holland also visited the island for study reasons usually an internship. Out of the 71 students from Holland (figure 7.4.), 67 visited the island for their study (figure 7.5.). The visitors from Venezuela also had business activities besides a recreational trip (table 7.7./figure 7.5.). Table 7.7. Purpose for Visiting Curacao (n = 286) Source: Researcher's own elaboration, Figure 7.5. Purpose of Visit Source: Researcher's own elaboration, 2013.

79 Out of all the participants, 50% (153 out of the 286 participants) visited the island for the first time namely tourists from the United States (66) and Holland (83). The most repeat visitors came from Venezuela, this could be explained by the fact that the cost of travel is less expensive than when a tourist would travel from one of the other countries. Tourists from Holland are divided between the different segments, nearly half of the tourists from Holland visited the island for the first time 83 out of the 168 participants from Holland but the other half visited Curacao at least one time before (table 7.8./figure 7.6.). Table 7.8. First Time Visitors (n = 286) Source: Researcher's own elaboration, Figure 7.6. First Time Visitors Source: Researcher's own elaboration, In question 8, tourists were asked if Willemstad was part of the reason they were visiting the island (table 7.9./figure 7.7.). If the participant answered with «no», they were asked what their reason for visiting was. The main answers were either an internship usually students from Holland or to relax and enjoy the beach and the climate. Another remarkable answer was that Curacao was part of their Caribbean cruise usually tourists from the United States so they did not chose Curacao directly but it was an indirect choice by participating in a Caribbean cruise. Americans usually visit the island with a cruise ship, and therefore it can be explained why 70,4% out of the 81 participants from the United States answered this question with «no».

80 Table 7.9. Was Willemstad Part of the Reason for Visiting Curacao (n = 286) Source: Researcher's own elaboration, Figure 7.7. Was Willemstad Part of the Reason for Visiting Curacao? Source: Researcher's own elaboration, From all the participants, more than half was aware of the UNESCO World Heritage status of Willemstad (table 7.10./figure 7.8.). Some heard of it vaguely and others knew everything about it. If they did not know about the status they were asked to go on to question number 16. The awareness among the Venezuelan tourists was the lowest 56,8% of the 37 participants from Venezuela knew about the UNESCO status of Willemstad. About 60% of both the participants from Holland as well as the United States knew about the UNESCO status. Table Awareness of the UNESCO Status (n = 286) Source: Researcher's own elaboration, 2013.

81 Figure 7.8. Awareness of UNESCO Source: Researcher's own elaboration, The question on how the tourist knew about the UNESCO status of Willemstad was answered in many different ways (table 7.11./figure 7.9.). But one thing became clear, the internet is still a strong marketing channel or tool 37,9% of the participants knew about the UNESCO status of Willemstad via the internet. Some tourists were not informed about the status until they saw the promotion video on the airplane, this can be a good channel as well but it is too late to attract new tourists since they already chose Curacao as a destination. Besides the internet the participants from Holland turn to friends and family 23 out of the 101 participants from Holland or a magazine/newspaper 17 out of the 101 to gather information. In Venezuela the magazine/newspaper is an important medium as well 23,8% of the 21 Venezuelan participants turn to this medium to gather their information. Only the participants form the United States really knew about the UNESCO status via a tour guide 13 out of the 52 participants from the United States. This can be related to the cruise ships with which the Americans usually arrive to the island. A cruise ship is selling a lot of tours when they call at a destination. The 39,6% out of the 174 participants who did not know about the World Heritage status of Willemstad were asked to skip the next section and immediately turn to question number 16. Table Medium to Gather Information on the UNESCO status (n = 174) Source: Researcher's own elaboration, 2013.

82 Figure 7.9. Medium for Information Source: Researcher's own elaboration, To get a good perception of how the city is perceived by tourists, it is important to know if the participants have already visited the city since some of the questionnaires were conducted at the airport. A good amount of the questioned tourists did already visit the city 149 out of the 174 participants and could provide an insight in how tourists perceive the historical districts (table 7.12./figure 7.10.). The participants who answered this question with «no» 25 tourists were asked to skip the next section and immediately go to question number 16. Table Visitation of Willemstad (n = 174) Source: Researcher's own elaboration, Figure Visitation of Willemstad Source: Researcher's own elaboration, 2013.

83 Tourists who already visited the city 149 participants were asked if they found Willemstad a place worth visiting on a scale of 1 5, 1 being not worth it and 5 being really worth it (table 7.13./figure 7.11.). Nearly half of the 149 participants (45,0%) found Willemstad worth visiting but it will probably stay at one visit. These tourists usually shop a little, eat something, take pictures and return to their hotel. But nearly 40% of the 149 participants found Willemstad worth visiting or even really worth visiting. Table The Value of Willemstad (n = 149) Figure The Value of Willemstad Source: Researcher's own elaboration, Source: Researcher's own elaboration, The perception of Willemstad as heritage is an import feature to investigate. What do tourists think: do they perceive the city as a cultural city that shows the heritage of Curacao? The majority of the participants believe that Willemstad is part of the islands' heritage 136 out of the 149 participants (table 7.14./figure 7.12.). This is a positive outcome since it points out the potential for more cultural development. Table Willemstad as Heritage of Curacao (n = 149) Source: Researcher's own elaboration, 2013.

84 Figure Willemstad = Curacao Heritage Source: Researcher's own elaboration, But on the other hand, when the questioned tourists were asked if they think of Willemstad as World Heritage, only about 60% out of the 149 participants agreed (table 7.15./figure 7.13.). Some tourists needed some guidelines concerning the concept of World Heritage, examples like Machu Picchu in Peru and the Pyramids in Egypt were used to explain the importance of such locations to the entire world and not just the local community. The majority of the participants from Holland 66,3% of the 86 Dutch participants did perceive Willemstad as World Heritage, and the majority of Venezuela 57,9% of the 19 Venezuelan participants shares this opinion. Only the participants from the United States were divided 47,4% out of the 44 American participants did see Willemstad as World Heritage but the other 52,3% did not perceive the city as World Heritage. Table Willemstad as World Heritage (n = 149) Source: Researcher's own elaboration, 2013.

85 Figure Willemstad = World Heritage Source: Researcher's own elaboration, In question number 15, the participants were asked if they thought that the image of Willemstad has changed after the UNESCO status on a scale of 1 5, 1 being not changed at all and 5 being really changed. The majority of the questioned tourists do not believe that the UNESCO status has changed the image of Willemstad (table 7.16./figure 7.14.). After asking why they think that the city did not change, a lot of them answered by saying: when walking through the city it is not clear that the city is of such cultural value, because the status is seldom mentioned. Table Image of Willemstad (n = 149) Figure Image of Willemstad Source: Researcher's own elaboration, Source: Researcher's own elaboration, All the participants were asked if they thought that the UNESCO status could play a role in creating a different image for Willemstad, and what kind of image that could be (table 7.17./figure 7.15.). According to a little over 70% out of the 286 participants, the status could help to create a more

86 cultural image for the city. When tourists point this out, it could be an opportunity for the city to actually implement the status and use it to create a different image. Table The Role of the UNESCO Status (n = 286) Source: Researcher's own elaboration, Figure UNESCO and the Image of Willemstad Source: Researcher's own elaboration, Variables identified from the literature review were used to organize and frame questions for the survey in order to research the holistic impact on the city based on the UNESCO status (table 7.18./figure 7.16.). The perception, impression, and beliefs of the participants were analysed and transformed into table and figure This analysis is a short term impact analysis. The questioned tourists were given the opportunity to chose from objectives whether they strongly agreed, agreed, neither agreed nor disagreed, disagreed, or strongly disagreed with the projected statements. From the 12 statements, an average of about 50% of the 286 participants agreed with 7 of the statements. These statements covered the history, entertainment, shopping, scenery, accessibility, and the touristic aspects of Curacao and if the questioned tourists would visit the island again 63,9% would. With two other statements, the majority neither agreed nor disagreed with these statements. Both of these statements covered the cultural activities of the island general activities and museums. The remaining three questions of the survey the majority answered by disagreeing with these statements. The questioned tourists did not find Curacao an island with a wide range of cultural activities, a modern island, nor a dangerous island.

87 That they disagreed with the last statement is positive certainly after the murder of Helmin Wiels on the majority still does not see Curacao as a dangerous island. Out of the five questions that the majority answered by disagreeing or neither agreeing or disagreeing, three of those questions were concerning the cultural activities on the island cultural activities in general, different cultures on the island, and the number of museums. Table Tourist Perception (n = 286) Source: Researcher's own elaboration, Figure Tourist Perception Curacao is...

88

89 Source: Researcher's own elaboration, The last question asked the participants what they were missing looking at the UNESCO status on Curacao (table 7.19./figure 7.17.). The majority of the questioned tourists said that the status had no exposure you can visit the city without noticing its great cultural relevance. Besides that, nearly 20% of the participants answered that the city should increase its cultural activities concerning the World Heritage status. This answer corresponds with the answers that were given in the previous question, question number 17 that the island indeed misses out when it comes to its cultural activities. Out of all 286 participants, 63,3% (table 7.18.) found the amount of cultural activities not satisfactory. But more exposure will automatically lead to more activities. And 10% said that the awareness among the inhabitants of Willemstad should be increased. Eventually awareness will lead to more exposure as well.

90 Table Usage of UNESCO on Curacao (n = 286) Source: Researcher's own elaboration, Figure Usage of UNESCO Source: Researcher's own elaboration, Qualitative Findings The interviews started in Holland, first with the national commission of UNESCO in Holland and a few days later with the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands. These two interviews were exploratory interviews, to get a better perspective of the case. An important finding came from these two interviews, because Curacao is part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands the UNESCO nominations go via the Netherlands. The Kingdom decides what will be up for nomination in Willemstad the historical districts and the buffer zones (Spitz, 2013). But after the site gets nominated it is not the Netherlands that obligates the site to implement certain policies but UNESCO, this has a positive effect since it is an independent organization that expects certain things and not the Kingdom of the Netherlands (Marrewijk, van, 2013). Eventually, Curacao has to do the work, make the policies, and implement them. UNESCO communicates with the Kingdom that has a ambassador in Paris but the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands is the executive body. Thus, the UNESCO commission of the island does not do anything official concerning the World Heritage status the executive body did not even know about their existence (Marrewijk, van, 2013). This is an overall finding of this research a lot of the involved parties do not communicate well with each other.

91 After these two exploratory interviews in Holland which placed the case in a broader perspective, nine in-depth interviews followed on Curacao. For this research it was important to know what the UNESCO status means for the island and the involved organizations. George Schmit of the Monument Foundation had a striking comment: receiving a UNESCO World Heritage status is like receiving a Michelin Star you have to work hard to get it but it will not provide instant benefits until you exploit it. In other words, it is a great honour to be selected as a World Heritage City but without exploitation of this brand it means nothing in general this is what all the interviewees said. All the organizations that are somehow involved with the UNESCO status of the city, implement it in their mission, vision, and strategies. The status is definitely used to create more policies and to protect the history of the island but it is not communicated to the tourists as well as the local community. Awareness is missing (Weeber, 2013; George, 2013; Gonzalez-Manuel, 2013; Mook, 2013; Schmit, 2013). The only benefit the status has brought the island so far is updated monument policies, district improvements, and maybe some job opportunities in construction. All of the interviewees agreed on one thing, the UNESCO status has not brought the island any economic benefit, yet. The island has a lot of potential to develop a sustainable way to exploit this unique selling point. The strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats gathered from these interviews and the questionnaires are listed below.

92 7.4. SWOT Analysis Table SWOT Analysis UNESCO on Curacao Source: Researcher's own elaboration, Strengths First of all, UNESCO is a strong brand. In general the aim of UNESCO is to emphasise the importance of education, peace, and international cooperation. The World Heritage Convention could function as a useful tool to encourage some form of cooperation between countries connected to UNESCO. Secondly, the existence of World Heritage has contributed to the awareness of the idea of heritage. Thus, when a country is connected to UNESCO as a World Heritage City it should create more awareness and attention for the site. Usually this should be the case, but as mentioned before the status is just a recognition that will not sell itself. When a site is not exploiting its status in many different ways, awareness will not be developed. Education could play an important role when creating awareness among the inhabitants of the site (Mook, 2013; Weeber, 2013; Klaus, 2013; George, 2013).

167 Appendix A: List of variables with corresponding questionnaire items (in English) used in chapter 2 Task clarity 1. I understand exactly what the task is 2. I understand exactly what is required of

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